STONE SOUP'S ON
LEFTOVER SCRAPS MAKE A HEARTY MEAL FOR THE HUNGRY
By Rick Marsi, Staff Writer
Reprinted with permission from the Press & Sun-Bulletin,
Thursday, November 30, 1995 issue
Here's a holiday recipe for caring about others:
Start with tidbits of food you once threw out as unusable scraps:
tasty beans at the bottom of a cooking pot, or the end of a tomato
left over from making a salad.
Freeze these morsels in quart containers until a cache of them
builds in the refrigerator,. Then make a soup base using crushed
tomatoes, barley, pasta, spices and a little parmesan cheese.
With your base at the ready, add your tidbits and make up a
simmering kettle of soup.
The "caring for others" part comes when you give it away - to
people in need of a hot healthy meal.
If you are Eliot Fiks, who has been following this recipe at his
Whole in the Wall restaurant in Binghamton for the past two months,
you give your soup to the Salvation Army for the free evening meal it
puts on every Thursday through Monday at its shelter on Washington
Street in Binghamton.
"Stone soup" is what Fiks calls the five-gallon batch he whips up
every week, using food tidbits he and other restaurant employees once
threw out because they couldn't be used. "Stone Soup" comes from a
time-honored tale of the same name Fiks heard many times as a child.
In the story, three hungry soldiers arrive in a village only to be
told by its inhabitants their cupboards are bare.
In Fiks' case, he hasn't had to cajole the ingredients from
reluctant donors, but he has had to convince his staff of the idea's
merit.
"It involves extra work," he said. "The question the staff asked at
first was, "Why do all this for such little pieces?"
Little pieces, when collected, add up. That's what Fiks discovered
when quart containers of tidbits began spilling out of his freezer.
Instead of being able to make stone soup once a month, as he had
anticipated, Fiks discovered he could concoct a batch every week.
Streamlining the process even more was the discovery that Broome
Bounty, a food distribution service for the needy operated by the
Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse, would pick up the soup at Whole
in the Wall and deliver it to the Salvation Army.
In the past two months, staffers at the restaurant have made eight
batches of Stone Soup.
"It always goes fast," said DiAnn Small, community services
director at the Salvation Army in Binghamton, describing the reception
Stone Soup has received at the Salvation Army's free evening dinner.
Between 60 and 80 people attend the dinner each night, said Small.
"The soup really helps round out the meals," she said "And with
cutbacks in funding, this kind of contribution becomes more and more
important, especially if the food is already prepared, that really
helps our food budget."
The Salvation Army could use more Stone Soup, added Small, which
brings up the second phase of Fiks plan.
There is, those who know him realize, always a second phase to
plans Fiks embraces.
"When Eliot gets an idea,"said Whole in the Wall junior partner
Stacey Gould, "it's like Pandora's box opens up".
When it opened this time, this idea escaped: if hungry people need
more soup, how much more could Fiks make if other restaurants provided
him with their Stone Soup tidbits? Imagine frozen quart containers
arriving at Stone Soup central - from Italian restaurant, Chinese
restaurants, restaurants of every description.
That is Phase Two of the great Stone Soup plan. For one local
restaurateur, it makes sense.
"I'm gung ho," said Gary Convertino of Kara's Kafe in Johnson City.
"I would have no problem helping with that endeavor. It would be a
great cause."
Said Fiks:"I am hoping a number of restaurants like Kara's will
save their scraps and bring them to me to make soup."
The Broome County Health Department would willingly work with local
restaurants in devising such a plan, said Robert Denz, the Health
Department's director of environmental health services.
"If we can help with the logistics of proper food handling," said
Denz, "we would be more than happy to do so."
There is one final element in Fiks' master plan: Stone Brownies.
"We always have pieces left at the corner of the tray when we make
them," said Fiks of the chocolate delight. "We could freeze the
crumbs. Then, when they built up, we could mix them with a little
fresh batter, and make a fresh batch of brownies."
The confections said Fiks, would be "Stone Brownies" from nothing,
created to help feed the hungry.
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