COMPASSION IS STONE SOUP'S MAIN INGREDIENT
By Rick Marsi, Staff Writer
Reprinted with permission from the Press & Sun-Bulletin,
Monday, April 1, 1996 issue
Stone Soup with vegetables? Stone Soup with chicken? Stone Soup
from scraps of prime rib? The Salvation Army has served them all
recently at the free evening meal it offers Thursday through Monday at
it's shelter on Washington Street in Binghamton.
"Stone Soup" is what Binghamton restaurant owner Eliot Fiks calls
the five-gallon batches of soup he has been making weekly since
October at his Whole in the Wall restaurant and donating to the
Salvation Army. The name comes from a children’s story in which three
hungry soldiers arrive in a village, only to be told by its
inhabitants that their cupboards are bare. Undaunted, the soldiers put
stones in a boiling pot of water, then gradually convince the
villagers to add real ingredients until a tasty soup has been made.
Recently, three other Southern Tier restaurants, Roaring Fork Steak
Co. in Vestal, the Hitchin’ Post Restaurant on Route 7 near Sanitaria
Springs and Kara’s Kafe in Johnson City, also have begun making
batches of Stone Soup to donate.
By using scraps she normally would throw away, her restaurant
hasn’t incurred additional costs in making the soup, said Mari-Ann
Jennings, Roaring Fork’s chef/owner. "The only thing it costs me is
time," said Jennings, who has donated two batches of soup to the
Salvation Army over the past two months.
Her most recent batch was Russian cabbage with potato. "It will be
different every time," said Jennings, who plans to make Stone Soup
once a month.
At the Hitchin’ Post Restaurant, co-owners Lora Merrell and Jack
Frost have donated more than 25 gallons of chicken vegetable and beef
vegetable soups in recent weeks. "It feels good to do something fo
people," said Merrell. "It also feels good not to throw away scraps of
prime rib."
Kara’s Kafe has donated three batches of soup to Broome Bounty in
the past month, said Kara’s owner Gary Convertino.
Broome Bounty is a food recovery program that picks up unused and
unserved food at local restaurants and grocery stores and delivers it
to shelters, soup kitchens and other programs for Broome County
residents in need.
As president of the Southern Tier chapter of the New York
Restaurant Association, Convertino is developing a plan by which each
member restaurant in the association would agree to make a batch of
Stone Soup two or three times a year.
"With the number of restaurants we have," he said, "that would mean
someone was making Stone Soup every week of the year."
Said Jennings of Roaring Fork: "I like the Stone Soup project
because it allows our restaurant to be involved in something right
here in the community. It lets us help our own people, up close and
personal."
Other Links Of Interest:
|
