Groveport, Ohio's Do-Gooding Soup Swap

A long time ago, or so it seems, in January we received a note from Becky on the first Grovesport, Ohio Soup Swap.

The Groveport United Methodist Church in Groveport, OH held our first Soup Swap in 2008. What fun! We used the Soup Swap to kick off our drive for the local food pantry. So in addition to taking home 6 delicious quarts of soup, we also collected 70-80 food items for the pantry.

The first soup picked and the person who picked the #1 each received a wooden spoon engraved on the back side with "GUMC 2008 Soup Swap." We had 15 different kinds of soups, with 13 attendees (plus some spouses to make it even more fun!). Soups ranged from chili, white chili, white bean and sausage, Mexican soups, vegetable soups, chicken noodle, and a tortellini soup -- yum, yum! With temperatures outside below freezing that evening, the thought of warm soup was delectable."

It is awesome to hear of folks having fun and doing so much good with collecting can food for foodbanks at Soup Swap. Way to go, Grovesport!

You can keep up to date with their work with the foodbank and the community at their blog, For a Good Cause.

Marion, Ohio: Great Swap, Cute Snacks!

Valerie of Consider It Done, writes on her blog, "The Soup Swap was a huge success! We had a nice variety of soups to swap, and enjoyed a wonderful evening of food (thank you, Charley!!!) and fellowship."

On her blog, you can see some creative snacks she made for the swap that delight us to no end: hors d'oeuvres designed to look like bowls of soup from above. She succinctly sums them up this way, "They don’t really taste like the soups- that would be gross."

Soup as soup: Yea!
Crackers that taste like soup: No way!

Take a look at them right here on her blog, Consider It Done.

The Heart of Ohio is a Bowl of Soup

January 25th, with temperatures in the single digits and sub zero wind chills, the day of the Heart of Ohio soupswap had arrived!

By 10:00A.M. swap time we had broken double digit temperatures!(10) Five swappers with 6 soups gathered to enjoy a brunch of muffins, breads, hot fruit casserole and lots of hot coffee and tea. Conversation and Telling of the Soup began. The soups: Cream of Portobello, Twenty-seven Ingredient Chili, Cauliflower with broccoli and cheese croutes, Minestrone with Italian Sausage, Corn and Wild Rice with Smoked Sausage and Mrs. Parks. Broccoli Soup.

We also collected 10 cans of soup to be donated to Helping Hands food pantry. A summer soupswap with cold soups is in the planning.

Thanks to Sylvia for this update from the Great State of Ohio!

Shout Outs: Marion, OH and Texas

We're not above doing a shout out to meet new folks swapping soup. We are a bit fiendish about pictures with the blue containers and most folks we see are quite awesome and link folks back to the the guidelines and tips we've put together.

Hence, we welcome Valerie of Consider It Done, and the town of Marion, OH to Soup Swap. You can see the page she put together to help spread the word with her posse here. I am assuming knitters have posses.

They'll be having their first of what they hope will be an annual Soup Swap on Tuesday, January 29 and if you are up there north of Columbus, you can check with her at her blog, here.

In other mysterious data, what is going on in Houston?

Heart of Ohio: Columbus

Using Soup Swap as a way to enjoy a light brunch, Sylvia writes "as with other swaps we will be collecting 2 cans of soup per person to be donated to the local food bank."

They are looking forward to having the soups to enjoy over the rest of the winter and they're looking forward to it!

It's Friday, January 25th at the earliest time yet! 10:00 AM!

They're out on the south side of Columbus (a place I once got wonderfully/horribly lost in): click here for more information.

World HQ of Nice People: Ashland, OH

Ashland, Ohio is up closer to Cleveland than Columbus, and likely gets those wintery blasts from the Lakes. Thank goodness for Soup Swaps and friends to get you through it. They were already drinking warm drinks at their Soup Swap party according the Mindy, the host.

It was Ashland's first Soup Swap this past Saturday. She sent on that they "had 9 participants and we each brought six quarts of soup" and that they were all friends from church.

Mixing up the hat drawing process we advocate, they must be mathematical geniuses in Ohio as "...we had a different process for choosing the soup each round (we used numbers 1-9 and 9-1, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) to make it more interesting and fun."

They also upped the door prize factor by including a take-away for the most prepared cook who made and then froze their soup first.

My favorite part of Mindy's email? "We have intentions to make this a yearly get-together!" Right on! We sure hope we can get them to join us out in Ohio for the upcoming 2nd National Soup Swap Day on Tuesday, January 23rd! And if not, we are thrilled for this burgeoning tradition to kick of those long Mid-West winters in Ohio!

Here's one more thing I learned about Ashland, OH. It's folks from there arriving on the Oregon Trail that started the Western mountain town, Ashland, Oregon. It's now known for its Shakespeare Festival and my old pal's winery, The Weisinger Winery. How awesome is that?