The Common Good Soup Kitchen Community strives to:
* Promote the use of local foods harvested from the sea as well as local produce
* Educate and teach easy preparation of whole foods and
* Promote dietary habits which foster health and wellness
* Help to provide jobs and build and maintain a sense of community all year round
* Provide a model of green, eco-friendly living
* Provide affordable natural food by keeping our costs down
* Help other local charities and service organizations
* Produce healthy, delicious soup and whole food salads for sale to support our programs
* Operate a self-serve café that utilizes the skills of our master chef in preparing delicious natural food
* Continue to distribute free soups and whole food salads to senior residences and others
The Common Good Community is an unprecedented, ever-evolving organism, serving the public as a café, a market, a winter soup kitchen, an educational resource, and a happening place for local events. The Common Good Soup Kitchen is a community effort inspired by the vision of master chef Bill Morrison, who has been utilizing all-natural and whole food ingredients for over thirty years to produce nutritious, delicious food. In February of 2009, he began, at his own expense and then with small local contributions, to distribute free, nutritious, vegetarian soups to local senior residences and others in need, adding salad to his offerings soon after he began distributing. Numerous community members were impressed and inspired by Morrison's food distribution, and these enthusiastic islanders formed the Common Good Community. The goal of forming this organization was to put the weekly free soup kitchen on a solid permanent footing, as well as to provide a natural food resource for the community.
During the summer months, the building used for the winter soup events becomes the Common Good Café, a for-profit organization raising money to fund the unpaid winter work. The cafe is located in Southwest Harbor, ME, at 566 Seawall Road (Route 102). The restauraunt, formerly Annabelle's and then the Seawall Dining Room, is adjacent to the Seawall Motel. The Seawall Campground is less than a mile down the road, past the majestic rocky shore called Seawall. The good will and blessings of Vicki and Dave Lloyd, the owners of the café building and the Seawall Motel, are making this possible, turning the dream into a reality.
Soup Events
at the Common Good Soup Kitchen
SUMMER: 6 day-week café operations, Wednesday educational evenings, weekend entertainment, Sunday open mic.
FALL: details coming soon.
WINTER: Soup Events and weekly distributions are held from fall to the end of April. A selection of healthful, nutritious soups are served along with live music or other forms of entertainment--creating a place for people to come together on a regular basis during the "quiet" months. The “soup with soul” program will continue, where one can pick up soup in containers and deliver it to senior residences and others who can not get down to the event. As long as the supply lasts, anyone who comes to the event can also take home soup for themselves or others.
Educational lunchtime events will take place from Noon to 2 PM on Fridays.
The fundraisers, special events and café operations in the summer and early fall, plus our community of volunteers, enable us to hold free soup events and deliver soup free of charge all winter. We are hoping to change what people think of when they hear the words ‘soup kitchen’—at the Common Good it is a place for fun as well as food, an attractive space for the community to enjoy, for folks to gather, interact and help each other. |
