Art and soup
Volunteers with the Butler Art Center & Gallery and Butler Community Meals are each focusing on their strengths for an event Saturday, Oct. 18.
Community Meals chefs are in the process of whipping up gallons and gallons of soup; and members of the art center’s woodturning club are churning out bowls for it to be served in.
The creations will collide on Oct. 18 at the art center for the first Souper Bowls luncheon — an event made to raise money for both organizations involved.
Justine Brown, manager of Katie’s Kitchen in St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and one of the coordinators of Butler Community Meals, said Paul Scanlon, a board member for the Associated Artists of Butler County, approached the church. He pitched her an event to combine the work of both organizations that would also draw attention to the mission of each.
“It all started when Paul contacted me and said the art center wanted to do a fundraising event and wanted to use bowls that people from their woodworking group had made,” Brown said. “We’re just getting the community together to enjoy the work of local artists and come together and enjoy some soup in the fall.”
Additionally, the event presents a good fundraising opportunity. The bowls will be sold for $25 each, which includes bottomless soup at the luncheon.
“It really is critical if we are going to continue to try to feed the hungry in the city of Butler,” Brown said of raising money for Community Meals. “Without donations, we could never do this on our own, each individual church.”
Rosanne Natili is helping to coordinate Souper Bowls on behalf of the Butler Art Center & Gallery. On Tuesday, Sept. 30, the two agencies met at the art center to further plan for how the luncheon would run.
According to Natili, the art center’s woodturning class is working on wooden bowls and other artists are working on ceramic bowls, which will all be sold at the luncheon. Jon Pugliese, one of the painters who will donate a portion of proceeds from his art sales at Souper Bowls, said the wooden bowls will include a liner, so they can actually hold soup at the event.
While guests at the luncheon can opt to purchase a helping of soup alone, Natili said the bowls that she has seen so far will likely fly off the shelves because of the craftsmanship involved in making them. Plus, the soup will be good enough to warrant more than one serving, according to Natili.
“The bowls are beautiful,” Natili said. “If you buy the bowl, you can come in and eat as much soup as you want. We think once they try the soup they will sit on down.”
On the Community Meals side, Brown said she and two other volunteers are making soup, along with Scanlon, for a total of four kinds of soup. Soup on sale will include chicken noodle, stuffed pepper, potato and black bean. Additionally, members of the community meal ministry are making desserts for the luncheon — pies, quick breads and muffins — which will be on sale, according to Brown.
Aside from the event being a fundraiser that combines the skill sets of members of two Butler nonprofits, Brown said Souper Bowls will be representative of the season.
“Soup is always good in the fall. (There’s) nothing like a bowl of soup and bread to warm your heart,” Brown said.
Natili said the luncheon also will be underscored with entertainment from the Butler County Symphony Orchestra, which will provide music throughout the evening.
“The Butler symphony is going to send four people down, each for an hour,” Natili said. “That is going to be wonderful.”
On Friday, Sept. 26, Brown had just finished organizing the data from the past two-and-a-half months of operations at Katie’s Kitchen. She said the kitchen served an average of 340 people every Thursday from the end of July through September — up from 305 on average from April to the beginning of July.
The increase of 305 meals on average to 340 on average is a “huge, significant jump,” according to Brown, who said fundraising has become an essential part of community meals’ work now.
“This time last year we were serving on average about a hundred less,” Brown said. “We’re seeing so many more people, and so many who are first-timers, and so many people who work several jobs and still need a meal because they can’t make ends meet in this economy.”
Each church involved in the Butler Community Meals ministry is open for dinner one day per week. First English Lutheran Church serves on Mondays; All Saints Parish at Saint Paul’s serves on Tuesdays; Saint Andrews Presbyterian serves on Wednesdays; Saint Mark’s and Trinity Lutheran serve on Thursdays; and Butler Global Church serves on Fridays. Brown’s statistics are only for Katie’s Kitchen at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, but, she said, the other four churches probably experience similar clientele volume because they rotate serving days.
Natili said the continuing need for the Community Meals could lead to the continuation of Souper Bowls, depending on how well the event does this year. However, she said the art center is already expecting a good turnout for the inaugural event.
“We’re starting to think it’s going to be a yearly event,” Natili said. “It’s going to be a nice, clean event, and we just hope everyone comes and enjoys themselves.”
Brown said she hopes to see Souper Bowls become a success, because, aside from the fundraising aspect of the luncheon, it is a good showcase of what the Community Meals ministry does, as well as the art center. She added that even if someone attends the event and only buys one pint of soup, everyone involved with Community Meals and everyone who is helped by them will be appreciative of the contribution.
“We appreciate every single penny, every cent that they donate to help us is appreciated,” Brown said.
Souper Bowls takes place from 1 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Butler Art Center & Gallery, 344 S. Main St. in Butler. The soup costs $6 per pint, $10 per quart or $25 for a bowl and all-you-can-eat soup. For more information, visit butlerartcenterandgallery.org.
