Homemade Soup to Eat and Share

There are all kinds of ways that kids can start to meaningfully participate in service to others in their community, and food is a particularly powerful connector.

From the time kids are little, they are keen observers of the rhyhms of the home, and meals - as any adult can testify - are never far from their minds! Allowing children to help participate in making a meal or snack creates a teachable moment in what is otherwise a one-directional relationship: We provide, they eat! When children learn how to cut apples or carrots, stir batter, grate cheese, and tear lettuce, they are actively thinking about how food gets to the table. From there, as I'm discovering as the parent of a 6 and 3-year old, it's possible to gently open a conversation with them about people who don't have enough food on their tables.

I believe, like so many others, that we need to both increase food literacy and food security among the next generation of kids. Have a cutting board and knife that's your child's very own (even if it's a butter knife with minimal "teeth"), and see if you can find little spaces in busy mealtime routines to show them how to prepare vegetables. Beyond cookies, see if there are opportunities to have them help create and "gift" foods from the kitchen that are healthy and nourishing, what my son's kindergarten teacher refers to as "foods that makes you grow, go, or glow!"

Recently, we made two kinds of soup to eat and share with the COTS Daystation in one of my kids' cooking classes. Judging from the response to this class, I think there's a lot of interest in bringing together kids and adults to cook with local vegetables, learn knife skills, and make hearty soups for food insecure Vermonters.

I feel thankful to work at an organization that passionately supports increasing food access, particularly among low-income children and families, through community cooking classes, store tours, donations to COTS, the Food Shelf, and Hunger Free Vermont, discounts to members who volunteer with organizations combatting hunger, and so much more.

There are also many ways you and your family can help from home.

Here are a few ways kids and families can be of meaningful service in relationship to food and their community:

Prepare, bring, and serve a meal at the COTS Daystation: Good nutrition is a problem for homeless people, who have no place of their own to prepare a healthy meal. A hearty, healthy noontime meal is always welcome. Consider getting together with friends to cook, or divide up the cooking among several families. The COTS Daystation feeds about 40-50 people each day. Multiply a batch of soup times 6, and bring a few loaves of bread.

Have a "potluck for COTS." Have kids participate in cooking food for a potluck gathering with friends and ask guests to donate money to a "cabin fever" fund: Giving a cash donation to COTS pays for an unexpected need that's not covered in their budget, such as cake for a child's birthday or a pair of shoes for a baby just learning to walk.

A variation on that theme: Have guests bring passes for recreational actvities, bookstores, restaurants, and the like: Feeling isolated from the cultural and recreational life of the community is very hard on families living in a shelter.

Give COTS $5, $10, and $25 gift cards to City Market, local bakeries, coffee shops, and restaurants. Have kids draw pictures or write cards to go along with the gift cards.

Donate cooking supplies to COTS and the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program for homeless families transitioning to their own apartment or New Americans who have just arrived and have no budget to buy basic pots and pans. Kids can help choose, bag, and deliver the supplies.

Become a family friend of a refugee family with kids. The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program can match you with a family that has recently arrived. Invite them to dinner, and accept an invitation for dinner at their house. Watch a friendship blossom over meals.

Donate to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. Canned good, dry goods, and  surplus produce are some of the items the Food Shelf accepts; or have your kids tear off a coupon at the check-out at City Market and find a time to talk about where that money goes. The Food Shelf is 500,000 pounds short of food this year because of cuts to the Emergency Food Assistance Program. The majority of people the Food Shelf serves are families with children.

Here is more information about each of these organizations:

(802) 864-7402
 
(802) 655-1963
 
(802) 658-7939
 

Thank you!

Golden Cheddar Cheese Soup

 
A kids’ favorite, this soup can be made with summer or winter vegetables.
 
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 medium potatoes, sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1-2 cups yellow/orange vegetables (summer squash, sweet potato, butternut squash, cauliflower, etc.), sliced
½ tsp. ground black pepper (or to taste)
Pinch ground turmeric
2 cups vegetable stock or water
1 cup milk
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
Salt to taste
Minced fresh scallions, chives, or parsley (optional)
 
Sauté the onions in the oil for about 5 minutes or until the onions begin to soften. Stir in the potatoes, carrots, yellow vegetables, black pepper, and turmeric. Add the stock or water and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are soft. Stir in the milk and grated cheddar cheese. When soup is cool enough to handle, blend until smooth. Gently reheat. Add salt to taste, and serve topped with minced scallions, chives, or parsley. Serves 4. Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.

Chicken Vegetable Soup

The next time you buy a chicken to roast, reserve the bones to make chicken stock. You’ll have amazingly flavorful chicken noodle soup when you start with homemade stock. If you don’t have time, you can start with half store-bought stock and half water.
 
For the homemade stock:
Chicken bones, from either roasted chicken or fresh chicken
Generous amount of salt and pepper
Splash of vinegar
Optional flavorings, such as: Bay leaf, dried herbs, onion, garlic, etc.
 
Place chicken bones in soup pot or crockpot and cover with water. Add salt and pepper, a spoonful of vinegar, and any optional flavorings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered for 2-3 hours or overnight (crockpot recommended). You may want to skim off any foam that rises to the top. If liquid level decreases a lot, add more water.
Turn off heat. When cool enough to handle, pour contents into a strainer set over a large, sturdy bowl or 2nd soup pot. Press on the bones to remove any extra liquid. If your bones had meat on them, remove bits of meat and add to stock. Taste for seasoning (salt/pepper), and put in containers to refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for several months. Discard bones.
 
For the soup:
2-3 Tbs. olive oil or butter
1 yellow onion, diced
2-3 carrots, sliced
2-3 stalks celery, halved lengthwise & sliced
1 parsnip, chopped, optional
1 tsp. dried thyme
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 bay leaf
4 cups diced fresh chicken (if stock is not very meaty)
8 cups of reserved homemade stock (or 4 cups store-bought stock and 4 cups water)
Optional veggies: mushrooms, diced potato, diced turnip, chopped leeks, sliced scallions, green beans, etc.
2 cups frozen peas
¼ cup fresh parsley, minced (for garnish)
Cooked egg noodles or cooked rice (I prefer to cook the noodles or rice separate from the soup itself so that the noodles do not absorb most of the soup broth)

Heat olive oil or butter in a large soup pot. Add onion, carrots, celery, and parsnips, and sauté for 5 minutes. Add thyme, a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and bay leaf. If your homemade chicken stock does not contain a lot of meat, add diced chicken and sauté for 5 more minutes. Pour stock into soup pot. Add any optional veggies you would like. Simmer on low, partially covered, until vegetables are tender.
Add the peas and parsley. Taste for seasoning (salt and pepper). Spoon cooked noodles or rice into a serving bowl and ladle the soup on top. Serves 4.

Cooking Classes, Community Outreach