Saturday, February 8, 2025

SOUP’s Up

Toledo SOUP, a nonprofit organization that hosts soup socials to fund community projects, has given ten micro-grants since its inception in March 2012. Community-minded folks come, pay $5 to eat delicious soup made by local chefs, hear proposals for projects, and vote on who takes home the pot. Since SOUP is taking a spring and summer break and reconnecting in fall with bi-annual events, we caught up with the people behind several of these projects to see what SOUP did for them, and what they’re up to now.

Glass City Pedicabs 

Maxwell Austin, owner 

Toledo’s first and only pedicab company, using 100% green pedal power to get you where you need to go.

"I used my SOUP money to pay for insurance and spare parts for my pedicab company.

Things are going awesome! We currently operate 15 Pedicabs in Toledo's uptown/downtown area. Toledo has shown us nothing but love and support. It's been very successful — we started with one pedicab in 2010 and now have 15 in Toledo and another 5 are used between Ann Arbor and out of state pedicab gigs.

We have some great plans for the 2016-17 season— we are adding a beercycle to our fleet, as well as adding new advertisers to the backs of our Pedicabs. We are more than transportation, Pedicabs also double as a means of mobile advertising."

 

New Life Urban Agriculture/GreenSpace Solutions

Derek Bunch, owner 

Greenery for Your Scenery.

"[With my SOUP funds] I built a room intended to grow mushrooms for sale to markets and restaurants. It didn't go as planned.

Now I use the room to raise worms and grow (compost) organic soil. I acquire scraps from various places to maintain a healthy mineral, PH, and microbe community, with the intention of using the compost tea to replace regular fertilizer in my gardening and landscaping business, GreenSpace Solutions."

 

Soul City Boxing Club and Gym

Roshawn Jones, coach and leader 

An anti-gang, anti-violence organization located in the central city, providing a safe and stable place for kids of all ages to go after school and on weekends.

"[SOUP winnings helped us] purchase three iPads for gym members to do their homework. Things are really busy right now. We are preparing to go to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. One of our boxers has qualified for competition.

We have maintained our enrollment with an average of 40 kids served nightly. The children have a hot meal every night provided through our collaboration with The Children's Hunger Alliance. The offerings at Soul City are not limited to boxing. We offer yoga through a certified yoga instructor, financial preparedness classes through Woodforest Bank, and tutoring through University of Toledo professors."

 

Sisters-In-Law

Gretchen DeBacker, founder

Women lawyers working with Mom’s House, a nonprofit assisting young, single moms.

DeBacker said the SOUP money funded Sisters-In-Law programming. "For example, we had a whole night on self-esteem and empowerment. We had a speaker come to talk to the girls and then we did a painting class. Each mom and mentor got to take home their own canvas.

In addition, each of the individual mom and mentor pairings continue to work on their relationships. They have lunch, the mentors stop by moms house and many are working on on-going issues in court ranging from custody to visitation and child support.

The money we won at SOUP has made a huge impact on our program. Quite simply, it has allowed us to exist. The win got us media attention that has helped, too. The Mom’s House program continues to grow and thrive and as a result, so does the Sisters-In-Law program. We are up to eighteen mentors — eighteen local female attorneys volunteering their time. We are so grateful."

 

Harvey House

Kristen Angelo, organizer and co-founder

A safe space for homeless LGBT youth.

“We used our SOUP winnings to file for tax exempt status with the IRS. I'm happy to say we are moving forward at a great speed. We have partnered with St. Paul's United Methodist Church in downtown Toledo. We are working with them to renovate two buildings a block down and will be moving into the second floor sometime over the summer. In the meantime, we will be scheduling community meetings and informational sessions so we can begin providing services to LGBTQA youths as soon as we open our doors.

Our two major hurdles have been funding and space. Now that we seem to have a solution to the space issue, we will continue to work on obtaining funding. Even with a pure volunteer staff, programming, materials, and space costs will continue to grow. Luckily, being able to obtain our tax exempt status was instrumental in pushing funding forward.

Our immediate goal is to get a drop-in center open to begin providing services ASAP. We would like to find staffing to operate a 24/7 drop-in center within the next year or so."

Toledo SOUP, a nonprofit organization that hosts soup socials to fund community projects, has given ten micro-grants since its inception in March 2012. Community-minded folks come, pay $5 to eat delicious soup made by local chefs, hear proposals for projects, and vote on who takes home the pot. Since SOUP is taking a spring and summer break and reconnecting in fall with bi-annual events, we caught up with the people behind several of these projects to see what SOUP did for them, and what they’re up to now.

Glass City Pedicabs 

Maxwell Austin, owner 

Toledo’s first and only pedicab company, using 100% green pedal power to get you where you need to go.

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"I used my SOUP money to pay for insurance and spare parts for my pedicab company.

Things are going awesome! We currently operate 15 Pedicabs in Toledo's uptown/downtown area. Toledo has shown us nothing but love and support. It's been very successful — we started with one pedicab in 2010 and now have 15 in Toledo and another 5 are used between Ann Arbor and out of state pedicab gigs.

We have some great plans for the 2016-17 season— we are adding a beercycle to our fleet, as well as adding new advertisers to the backs of our Pedicabs. We are more than transportation, Pedicabs also double as a means of mobile advertising."

 

New Life Urban Agriculture/GreenSpace Solutions

Derek Bunch, owner 

Greenery for Your Scenery.

"[With my SOUP funds] I built a room intended to grow mushrooms for sale to markets and restaurants. It didn't go as planned.

Now I use the room to raise worms and grow (compost) organic soil. I acquire scraps from various places to maintain a healthy mineral, PH, and microbe community, with the intention of using the compost tea to replace regular fertilizer in my gardening and landscaping business, GreenSpace Solutions."

 

Soul City Boxing Club and Gym

Roshawn Jones, coach and leader 

An anti-gang, anti-violence organization located in the central city, providing a safe and stable place for kids of all ages to go after school and on weekends.

"[SOUP winnings helped us] purchase three iPads for gym members to do their homework. Things are really busy right now. We are preparing to go to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. One of our boxers has qualified for competition.

We have maintained our enrollment with an average of 40 kids served nightly. The children have a hot meal every night provided through our collaboration with The Children's Hunger Alliance. The offerings at Soul City are not limited to boxing. We offer yoga through a certified yoga instructor, financial preparedness classes through Woodforest Bank, and tutoring through University of Toledo professors."

 

Sisters-In-Law

Gretchen DeBacker, founder

Women lawyers working with Mom’s House, a nonprofit assisting young, single moms.

DeBacker said the SOUP money funded Sisters-In-Law programming. "For example, we had a whole night on self-esteem and empowerment. We had a speaker come to talk to the girls and then we did a painting class. Each mom and mentor got to take home their own canvas.

In addition, each of the individual mom and mentor pairings continue to work on their relationships. They have lunch, the mentors stop by moms house and many are working on on-going issues in court ranging from custody to visitation and child support.

The money we won at SOUP has made a huge impact on our program. Quite simply, it has allowed us to exist. The win got us media attention that has helped, too. The Mom’s House program continues to grow and thrive and as a result, so does the Sisters-In-Law program. We are up to eighteen mentors — eighteen local female attorneys volunteering their time. We are so grateful."

 

Harvey House

Kristen Angelo, organizer and co-founder

A safe space for homeless LGBT youth.

“We used our SOUP winnings to file for tax exempt status with the IRS. I'm happy to say we are moving forward at a great speed. We have partnered with St. Paul's United Methodist Church in downtown Toledo. We are working with them to renovate two buildings a block down and will be moving into the second floor sometime over the summer. In the meantime, we will be scheduling community meetings and informational sessions so we can begin providing services to LGBTQA youths as soon as we open our doors.

Our two major hurdles have been funding and space. Now that we seem to have a solution to the space issue, we will continue to work on obtaining funding. Even with a pure volunteer staff, programming, materials, and space costs will continue to grow. Luckily, being able to obtain our tax exempt status was instrumental in pushing funding forward.

Our immediate goal is to get a drop-in center open to begin providing services ASAP. We would like to find staffing to operate a 24/7 drop-in center within the next year or so."

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