Cooking for the Common Good

   On Mount Desert Island, Maine, winter can mean six months of isolation and tough
     times, as year-round residents hunker down through the cold season. Larry Stettner
     and Bill Morrison vowed to change that. In November 2009, the Common Good Soup
     Kitchen opened its doors to the public, offering free soup as well as live music and a
     place for locals to gather, interact, and help each other. In its first winter of operation,
     the Common Good served over 10,000 bowls of soup to the community. Run entirely
     by donations, grants, and volunteer labor, the café also runs a distribution program to
     deliver soup to senior residences and others who cannot make it out to the café.

         In Cooking for the Common Good, Stettner and Morrison argue that we need to
      radically rethink the concept of the soup kitchen, emphasizing true community
      building along with incorporating healthy and locally sourced food. The book includes
      a lively third-person narrative telling the story of how the Common Good Soup Kitchen
      was created; the authors' unique cooking philosophy; some of their most popular
      soup and salad recipes; and a full appendix with resources and a sample grant
      application for others interested in starting their own soup kitchen.