Bring one dollar bills to cast votes for your favorites!

Don't go to Rolling Hills Country Club this week. Instead, join us at Starkey, 144 S. Young St., for our Annual Soup Luncheon. A map will be emailed showing where to park and enter the building. If you signed up to bring food, please arrive early to allow time to set up and don't forget to bring a serving utensil.

A little history about our Soup Luncheon...

Our club’s first Soup Luncheon took place on April 25, 2000, with the goal of raising funds and awareness for Hunger Plus, Inc., a non-profit relief agency dedicated to providing food and essential supplies for emergency situations and, for longer term projects, to improve food security — a project supported by Rotary International. The money we saved by not eating lunch at RHCC for that meeting was directed toward sponsoring shipments of dehydrated soup from the Breedlove Dehydrated Foods facility in Lubbock, Texas.

Initially, we prepared bags of the dehydrated soup for our luncheon, which, although nourishing, lacked flavor. To enhance the experience, John Mosley proposed a Soup Contest for the following year, inviting members to bring their own creative soups using the dehydrated mix as a base. By 2006, we evolved our approach, allowing our talented “chefs” to showcase their favorite soups without the mix.

Over the years, this event has transformed from a simple soup cook-off into a full-fledged soup, chili, and dessert competition with members casting $1 votes for their favorites, raising a few extra dollars for the project. In 2017, we decided to shift our donations from Hunger Plus, Inc. to local organizations, such as the Lord’s Diner and Paxton’s Blessing Box. Another recent recipient has been ShelterBox who is focused on disaster relief. They have now become the established beneficiary of our proceeds, largely due to the fact of our close connections since they are a Rotary International Project Partner, Ed Frey is the Rotary District  Coordinator for ShelterBox, and it is one of our club’s International Service projects.