Cincinnati native Suzy DeYoung dreamed of opening a soup kitchen to feed the hungry, but since she still needed to make a living, she decided to open a restaurant instead.
La Soupe, a for-profit soup kitchen with a heart for nonprofits, opened in Anderson Township on April 29.
“Soup allows you to take what is given to you, and with homemade broths, becomes a meal,” DeYoung says. “It’s a slow cooking process that at 55 years old, it fits my lifestyle better than the stress of line cooking and off-site catering.”
DeYoung’s “aha moment” for her restaurant came after reading two books about entrepreneurship and nonprofits—
The Art of Giving and
Starting Something That Matters.
“I realized that if Blake Mycowskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, could create a business model around giving away shoes, I could create one around giving away soup,” she says.
For every quart of soup sold, La Soupe pays it forward and donates soup to local nonprofits in the Cincinnati area. Organizations like the
Drop Inn Center and
Our Daily Bread have partnered with La Soupe, and the restaurant is looking for more agencies that need help.
Every year, DeYoung reads the book
Stone Soup to a group of fourth graders at St. Gertrude’s, and the students bring items they like in soup—beans, vegetables, noodles. She then makes soup with the ingredients, they sell it and donate the money to charity.
La Soupe’s rotating menu features croque du jour, therapeutic broths and seasonal specialties. There’s also a soup that was created by a 10-year-old and
Chef Jean-Robert de Cavel through the
Make-A-Wish Foundation on the menu.
“I want this to be the first La Soupe, and I would love for other cities to see this as the first business model where food is made using surplus that would otherwise go to waste,” DeYoung says. “If we creatively use these products to make interesting soups and stews, and give back to our less fortunate neighbors, it will become a wonderful full circle program.”
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter
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