A Simple Recipe: Soup + Bread + Community
There’s a good chance you have a delicious recipe stewing when you invite a collection of local chefs, business owners, artists and community leaders to make soup and help serve it up together at a local hot spot. Top it off with scrumptious bread and a hearty donation to a local charity and you have an evening that can pull Michiganders out of winter hibernation. Andrea Deibler has done just that by organizing Soup and Bread.
“The goal is to bring people together in the winter months with something that is fun and also benefits the community,” says Deibler. “It makes people feel good.”
The event is held on the third Monday of every month from October through March. This year’s kickoff event ladled out soups from the chefs at Cooks’ House and Black Star Farms, and Pete Peterson, whose Warehouse District restaurant opens soon. In addition to these top local chefs, resident Joey DiFranco and the author of this article served up a sweet pepper chili, and the bakers of 9 Bean Rows in Suttons Bay delivered on artisan breads, the essential pairing for such fare.
After moving to Traverse City from Chicago, where she participated in a similar program, Deibler quickly measured up The Little Fleet as the perfect host. The bar is best known for its food truck court in the summer months, but throughout the year hosts events like Soup and Bread.
“It’s the coolest place in town,” she says.
“Like Chicago, Traverse City is really food focused. I felt a big sense of community in Chicago and I feel like we have a big sense of community here. There’s a lot of people that are super creative and want to do things like this and participate in the community.”
Deibler brings a strong food focus to the event, herself working as the protein buyer at Cherry Capital Foods, using her background in butchering, charcuterie and sausage making to manage their meat procurement. However, Soup and Bread also brings the community together to raise money for local charities. Last year, they averaged around $500 per event. At the first event this year, over $650 was raised for the Father Fred Foundation.
Follow Soup and Bread on Facebook at Soup and Bread TC.
