Soul Soup – Feeding the Homeless One Bowl at a Time

20th September

By Alex Brown

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

“The Edge… There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.” – Hunter S. Thompson

Meet Bev. She’s in her 70′s.

Bev is a professional soup maker. She feeds the homeless, and has fed a whole bunch of hungry mouths in her time. The unwashed souls, dirty feet and lost blankets.

Her expedition to the park began with just the serving of soup (the great ‘soup kitchen’ cliché) - and soon all their retirement funds were spent. Almost two decades on, it’s now a three course healthy meal, with a weekly roast, dessert and always fruit and vegetables. The street people I’ve met say its the best free meal in town.

Bev’s mantra for feeding the homeless is this: Never serve these people anything that you wouldn’t be comfortable serving guests in your own home. 

One day on the menu was slow cooked veal. When asked how it tasted, one of the regulars replied it was “ok, not the best I’ve had”. That’s how good the food is; the homeless people she serves (whom she affectionately refers to as “streeties“) get fussy now as the standard has been set.

Soup for the Soul

Bev and her husband John’s community organisation Manna is solely donation based; people donate food, leftover cakes or bread from their businesses. Some local companies provide cash and regular volunteers. It’s a well oiled machine with over 100 meals cooked fresh daily for the homeless, all run by volunteers. Six fresh, hot meals a week, Sunday to Friday. Their organization now supports over 3000 homeless and disadvantaged people each week.

Bev and John have dedicated the last 18 years to making other people’s lives more fortunate through kindness (first) then putting food in their stomachs (second), and this has clearly been their elixir of life. Bev looks way younger than her years and instantly strikes you (and quite hard too!) as one of those seemingly rare souls who can – and do – turn despair into a wonderful curveball of positivity.

These special people exist to change the world. Simple as that.

Her stories are heart breaking. But this woman tells them with a grace and poise that is so natural and infectious. She is so eloquent and affected by life.

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