Cleveland SOUP Attracts Hungry Folks and Needy Projects

ClevelandSOUP

Thu 5/28 @ 6-9PM 

California transplant Marika Shioiri-Clark is all about making a difference in her Cleveland community.

Having relocated to Northeast Ohio roughly three years ago, Shioiri-Clark, along with fiancé Graham Veysey (hence the move east), are spearheading the recently introduced Cleveland SOUP initiative, which brings together community members for a potluck dinner that also acts as a crowdfunding micro-grant project.

The concept is relatively simple: Interested participants bring a dish for a potluck dinner and donate $20 (suggested amount), which will go towards a winning project. Shioiri-Clark and Veysey whittle the project suggestions down to five ideas. Each visionary or charity gives a four-minute pitch. Afterwards, participants vote, with the winner getting the cash for their project.

So far there have been two Cleveland SOUP initiative events in which $2,000 was raised for local projects. The third such affair is scheduled for May 28 at St. John’s Church’s Station Hope in Cleveland.

Cool Cleveland talked to Ohio City’s Shioiri-Clark about this unique program that facilitates community members helping, well, their own community.
First of all, how did you conceive Cleveland SOUP?

The idea came from a friend who was involved in the Detroit SOUP. We thought it would be great for Cleveland. Last August, we had our first one. Graham and I sent out a group email to every mailing list we’d been on, saying, “Hey, we’re doing this thing.” We did the first SOUP in our apartment. We had about 100 people come. I didn’t think we’d get that much. It was great and really casual. It just had a really collaborative kind of community feel.

Tell us about the two Cleveland SOUP winners.

The first time it was Rust Belt Riders. They do local composting all on bicycles. Businesses and homes can sign up to have them come pick up food scraps. They then produce compost and deliver it to different local farms. The money from SOUP allowed them to buy at least one new trailer and really expand the size of their business. The second was the Cleveland YWCA, which has an early childhood learning program that mostly caters to homeless children. They provide several meals throughout the day and it’s often the only meals those children get. Their stove broke so they needed to buy a large industrial stove that was just about the amount of money they needed. Also, we had Rust Belt Riders come back for the second one to present what they had done with the money. And for this one, we’ll have the YWCA come back.

What is it about the Cleveland SOUP concept that works?

It’s great to see a super-wide variety of projects. I really like how simple and close-looped the structure is. You don’t have to be a 501 (c)  3 to do it. There’s no having to write a report or auditing. The whole point is it’s like a community that trusts each other and the only monitoring we do is to encourage former winners to come back and talk about what they did with the money. And even if they spent the money on something unrelated, each person is only out $20.

So do you find most folks attending a SOUP event are coming for the food or the crowd funding?

People think it’s cool to see different ideas that others are excited about. I think SOUP is a really great community event. Also, people come out to catch up with friends and meet new people.

The promotional materials for the upcoming event mention people using the SOUP funds towards filling potholes. After this past arctic winter left many Cleveland streets looking like 1945 Berlin, is someone actually advocating a resident-based pothole-filling project? 

I actually put that as sort of a guideline [laughs]. Your project could be anything you want. We haven’t had anybody actually pitch to fill potholes.

Hmm, maybe Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson should do just that?

Right, he could use the money for that.

Cleveland SOUP takes place from 6 -9 p.m. 5/28 at St. John’s Church’s Station Hope in Hingetown, 2600 Church Ave., Cleveland. People can RSVP at clevesoup@gmail.com.

Cleveland, OH 44113

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