WHOLE IN THE WALL FEATURED ON NPR
Owner Eliot Fiks receives National Humanitarian Award
Eliot Fiks was given the E-achievement award on the 20th of August,
1999, a humanitarian award given to unsung heroes, who have affected
their communities in positive and valuable ways. The award was granted
by E-Town, a nationally syndicated radio show on NPR. E-Town has been
on the air since 1991, and is a show similar to Prairie Home Companion
with Garrison Keeler. E-Town aired on November 9, 1999, with Eliot
Fiks and Kris Kristofferson as their guests.
Have you ever heard of Stone Soup? Well, that’s where Eliot’s
heroism lies… As a restaurant owner he created a new and innovative
way to feed the hungry, going above and beyond the scope of other
restaurants. Borrowing the name from the classic fairy tale, the idea
is essentially the same: making a delicious soup (and here’s the
magic), from what appears to be nothing. Eliot noticed a few years
back that “nothing” was that (very edible) little bit of veggie left
on the end of a carrot, zucchini, or green pepper the cook finished
using. He made note of that spoonful of rice left over, the top of the
tomato, and piece of potato. The fate of this perfectly good food had
always been the garbage, until Eliot decided he would make something
out of nothing. Instead of being garbage bound, these bits of carrot,
tomato, and others became plastic container bound, and found
themselves in the freezer, waiting until there was enough of them to
make soup. Sooner rather than later, with the addition of a few basic
ingredients and spices, a five gallon bucket of hearty and nutritious
soup was made and picked up by an area soup kitchen. Then another, and
another, and it became a regular process, in which the entire staff at
Whole in the Wall restaurant participates.
An alternate food source is what Eliot tapped into, one that
because of the abundance in our society, has been overlooked. It is
one thing to give to the hungry what has already been made, as his
restaurant does with its homemade bread, and others do with leftovers
from catering jobs, etc.. It is quite another to make something out of
“nothing”, that every restaurant has, but throws away. If every
restaurant made stone soup, millions of people would be fed, on top of
what is given to them from area restaurant’s leftovers. Stone Soup is
an additional food source, essentially created from “nothing”. Eliot
has fed 17,000 people… one man, one restaurant. Imagine ten people,
ten restaurants! Or even more. In Eliot’s words “A little ends up to
be a lot”.
*For info on how your food service
establishment can make Stone Soup click here.
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