VERO BEACH — Combine comfort food, creativity and sense of community, and you wind up with the Samaritan Center Soup Bowl, to benefit families in need.
For the past 20 years, participants and diners have gathered at locations all over the county, united in a single message – “breaking bread together for the homeless.”
Eager early birds lined up even before venue doors opened, ready to take part in the best lunch deal in town. The well-coordinated effort has been added to and enhanced over the years, but the basic principal remains the same.
Organizers expected that more than 5,000 people would be served this year – dining on simple meals of soup and bread – to raise awareness and funds for the Samaritan Center for Homeless Families.
Gallons of tasty soup, donated by restaurants, clubs and caterers, were delivered to places of worship, medical facilities and nonprofit organizations.
Additionally, staff at another 20 businesses brought in their favorite homemade soups to serve on their premises or other venues, for the dinner crowd a few places offered an evening choice, and still others hosted private Soup Bowl at Home events.
At each venue, hand-crafted soup bowls, thrown and glazed over the summer by talented potters in workshops at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, were selling like hotcakes, as savvy enthusiasts snapped up favorites from the 1,300 bowls to add to their collections.
Four one-of-a-kind soup tureens, created by artisans Lisa Lugo, Coco Martin, Jan and Gus Miller and Walford Campbell, were also being raffled, with winners to be drawn the next day at the Gallery Stroll.
Armies of volunteers in blue t-shirts began setting up early in the morning to get ready for the onslaught, kept watch over simmering pots, replenished bread baskets, set new places, and kept things tidy.
The three busiest spots on the beach were the Indian River Shores Community Center, where Coldwell Banker Ed Schlitt Realtors’ volunteers presided over 30 crockpots of homemade soups, and churches Christ by the Sea and Holy Cross, which had been stocked by local restaurants.
Diners with a sweet tooth flocked to the Coldwell Banker group, coordinated for the second year by Dustin Haynes, for their appetizing assortment of homemade desserts.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” said Eleanor Simon.
“Eleanor is the matriarch of the whole thing,” interjected Sharon Wininger, crediting Simon with founding the local Soup Bowl concept.
“It’s a good feeling; a wonderful community effort,” said Simon. “People at Coldwell Banker buy the ingredients, cook, serve, cleanup; they do everything. And they love it. What’s not to like?”
“I’ve been volunteering for 10 years,” said Andy Wainright, coordinating the effort at Christ by the Sea. “The response has been very good. We’re almost out of bowls too.”
“It was very good; the hard part was picking out which one to have,” said Jay Williams, curator of exhibitions and collections at the Vero Beach Museum of Art as he left Holy Cross Church.
“The place has been filled,” said Rene Donars at Holy Cross. “Today is All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation, so there will be a lot more coming over after Mass.”
“I was afraid we wouldn’t have any bowls left for the group from Mass,” said his wife Alice. “They’re beautiful; they’re so original. We had five boxes of them, and there is only a handful left.”
The Samaritan Center, a program of Catholic Charities and a United Way agency, provides transitional housing for homeless families with dependent children in Indian River County.