About Us
We are a non-profit organization in a very small Maine coastal community with an innovative approach that combines disparate activities in a synergistic manner. We are a soup kitchen, a natural/organic food market and a café. Our mission is to provide service in the form of distributing free healthful soups and salads from all natural ingredients to the elderly and others in need, to educate about the use of natural foods to promote health and wellness and to serve as a focus for community solidarity. We obtain the revenue to support, sustain and expand our program by operating a café, selling prepared natural, healthful food and raw ingredients, catering, donations and contributions. We are located in Southwest Harbor, at the Seawall adjacent to the Acadia National Park. Our opening day was July 1, 2009.
The Common Good Soup Kitchen Community
* 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 Soup Kitchen Community
The CGCSK is a community effort inspired by the vision of master chef Bill Morrison, who has been utilizing all natural and whole ingredients to produce nutritious, healthful and simply delicious food for over thirty years. In February of 2009, he began, at his own expense and then with small local contributions, to distribute free healthy, nutritious, vegetarian soups and then salads to local senior residences and others in need. In order to put the weekly free soup kitchen on a solid permanent footing as well as provide a natural food resource for the community, the goal of forming the Common Good Soup Kitchen Community was conceived. Today, it is a café, market, educational resource and happening place for local events.
The outpouring of support from our community in the first year and a half has been exceptional. The heart of the soup kitchen is located in Southest Harbor, Maine, at 566 Seawall Road, in space that was the former Seawall Dining Room. It is adjacent to the present Seawall Motel, next door to Acadia National Park and its Seawall Campground and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.The good will and blessings of owners Vicki and Dave Lloyd are making this possible, turning the dream into a reality. Prepared vegan soups, salads, wraps, pizza and other foods are produced in our kitchen and sold to be consumed on the premises at the community's Café or taken out to enjoy in the outdoors or at home. The raw ingredients for these foods, and other locally produced food products will be for sale, from bulk containers wherever possible.
Recipes and culinary advice will be offered by our chef(s) at the point of sale. Educational classes and/or a workshop series on how to use one's diet in easy and simple ways to improve health and wellness will be offered. Events that are fun for the whole family happen regularly. And, of course, food for the weekly free soup kitchen program will be produced and distributed on an expanded basis as resources permit. To find out more: send an e-mail: commongoodsoup@gmail.com; or phone: Bill Morrison at 669- 2622. Contributions or other communications can be mailed to The Common Good Soup Kitchen Community, 566 Seawall rd. SW Harbor, Maine, 04679.