Jenn Eliason and Karen Langsam. [Photo: Denise Ritchie]

A delicious array of soups, stews and chowders bubbled forth from a font of good intentions during the 27th annual Samaritan Center Soup Bowl, offered up at 44 locations across the county.

More than 100 gallons of scrumptious soups from 70 restaurants and country clubs, along with an estimated 650 gallons concocted by employees at local businesses, provided a soupçon of choices. Selections ran the gamut from such old standards as chicken soup and New England clam chowder, to sweet potato bisque, curried butternut squash and jambalaya.

After making their selections, folks settled in to “break bread together for the homeless,” supporting the mission of the Samaritan Center to provide transitional housing to homeless families, work with them to identify the root cause of their homelessness and develop the skills they need to achieve self-reliance.

Local potters again fired up their kilns to raise additional funds by creating hand-crafted soup bowls. This year, Indian River Clay members threw more than 400 bowls to add to the 1,100 created by other clay artists at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Other artists produced soup tureens, functional works of art which lucky raffle winners would soon take home.

A new partnership with the Learning Alliance for the Moonshot Moment introduced JumpStart Read for the Record, an annual event in which millions of people across America read the same book. This year’s book, “Thank You Omu!” by Oge Mora, was available at Soup Bowl locations throughout the county.

“It’s a story about soup and serving up kindness,” said Renee Bireley, Samaritan Center program administrator. “It’s a perfect tie-in. One of the preventative measures to homelessness is education. One of the ways our clients struggle to support themselves economically is often from a lack of education. Education is central to their future success and their children’s future success.”

The Samaritan Center has served more than 650 families since 1992.

“All the money goes back directly to benefit the Samaritan Center for homeless families. Seventy-five percent of our budget comes from our fundraisers, private donations and grants,” said Bireley.

For more information, visit ccdpb.org.