Last Night I Attended Soup

Last night I attended Soup, A gathering held on the first Sunday of every month above the Mexican Town Bakery on Vernor Ave. Soup has been going on for about a year now and its really starting to pick up in popularity. The Idea is to get a group of Detroiters together to microfinance projects in Detroit. It costs five dollars to get in and that scores you soup, salad and desert. The majority of the night is spent mingling and conversing about how to make the city a better place with other young, optimistic Detroiters. During dinner, a few people from the group (you’ll be able to recognize them because they are wearing capes) present projects their working on. Each presenter is given three minutes to sell the group on the importance of their particular project and then the group is allowed four questions per presenter to try and better understand or poke holes in the presenters project. Everyone is generally positive and friendly, even when the ideas and or presentations are laughable. After everyone presents and before you leave you are asked to cast your vote for what project you think in most deserving of funding. The votes are tallied and the winner receives the money raised from the five-dollar entry fee. My friend Veronica won last month for her Empowerment Plan and scored over 700 dollars.

Soup is another example of how the Detroit community is working together on a grass roots level to improve the city. In attendance last night, there were students, professionals, teachers, urban farmers and creative’s of all variety. The common thread was that all these people want to see a better Detroit and their willing to roll up their sleeves and do it themselves or at least give some money to help others in their pursuit. I think its fantastic, why should we go at it alone or depend on handouts from corporations? Most of us have five bucks a month to give to something charitable and Soup is possible the coolest way I’ve found to give back to the community without needing to do work of any kind.