Saeed Husain
Chief Copy Editor
Soup and Bread, the organization on campus which organizes a simple meal of soup and bread every Wednesday to aid food security in the city of Wooster, teamed up with Proyecto Latino to hold a special dinner on Oct. 4 to raise funds for the hurricane relief effort in Puerto Rico.
At the dinner, every meal swipe (or $5 in cash or credit) donated $3 go to those in need. Extra donations were also encouraged and welcomed. Specifically, the money from this drive went out to Convoy of Hope, a Missouri-based aid organization.
This dinner, like the usual Soup and Bread at lunch on Wednesdays, was held at Kittredge Dining Hall.
In the middle of last month, Hurricane Maria slammed into the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, causing widespread damage and killing 48 people, according to the island’s Department of Public Safety.
As of Oct. 16, 109 people still remained unaccounted for, while tens of thousands have left the island. Over 1.2 million residents lack potable water and many still lack electricity.
Nate Addington, the director for social and civic responsibility at The College of Wooster, talked to The Wooster Voice about why Soup and Bread chose to organize this fundraiser for Puerto Rico.
“When we saw all these reports coming in … they were having a hard time getting supplies out to people, like supermarkets just gone. For us to … ignore that, would just be irresponsible on our part. We’ve also had students that have family connections to Puerto Rico reach out to us asking what Soup and Bread could do to help us with this, so we were happy to do it,” said Addington.
During the two-hour event, the Soup and Bread team uploaded statuses, pictures and videos on their Facebook page, @WooSoupAndBread.
Addington estimated there were nearly 500 people who entered Kittredge during the fundraiser.
“Though I think that’s sort of conservative because I counted about 50 people who came in inside the first five minutes, and the line never slowed down to until maybe like 10 ‘til 7 [p.m.],” said Addington.
By the end of the fundraiser, an estimated $4,360 had been raised. Donations that contributed to that total included $116 from Flex Yoga in Wooster and $220 from Dos Eppi’s Mexican Restaurant in Defiance, Oh.
A donation bucket at Kittredge Hall added another $100, all of which came from cash and checks from the surrounding community.
Claire Wineman ’21, who attended the dinner, said, “I love Soup and Bread because it helps me feel a little more connected with world events, and provides a nice time to also share a meal with my wider Wooster community who are out for this cause.”
The menu for the special dinner included items such as golden cheese and broccoli soup, cream of potato soup, tomato bisque soup, organic minestrone soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
For the future, Addington talked about how Soup and Bread is partnering with Greenhouse and the Environmental Studies Department to help in El Salvador as well.
“In two weeks we’re going down to El Salvador [to] work on clean water sustainability issues, and the goal is to raise money next semester to install a solar-powered clean water filtration system in rural El Salvador. We’re really excited about what is really whole new ground for Soup and Bread,” said Addington.