Scorching soup makes for a good way to heat up on a chilly, chilly day, and that idea is being harnessed as soon as once more to assist hold heat a whole bunch of people who find themselves experiencing homelessness.
Tickets can be found for the thirteenth Annual BEDS Plus Soup and Bread fundraiser, set for Feb. 2 at Vacation Inn West Banquets, 6201 Joliet Highway, Countryside.
The profit, which final yr drew 1,000 folks, will final from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. All proceeds will go in the direction of the La Grange-based nonprofit devoted to serving to these going through homelessness and housing instability.
“Yearly we attempt to hold it the identical and make it a bit completely different, all on the identical time,” mentioned Erin Molek, BEDS Plus improvement supervisor. “This yr, most significantly, we’ve got 23 native eating places supplying soup. It’s simply only a nice array of various soups that we’re actually enthusiastic about this yr.”
Molek mentioned organizers have additionally gotten the assist of grownup beverage purveyors, who will likely be offering “our spirits, our breweries, our libations, and our combined cocktails.”
“It’s simply so nice to get the neighborhood behind it, as a result of that permits us to do an occasion and nonetheless hold our costs down so folks can attend,” she mentioned. “We will nonetheless elevate a superb sum of money to assist these in want who wrestle with housing insecurity.”
Molek mentioned about 90% of the funds raised at Soup and Bread would go towards serving to the folks served by BEDS Plus.
Tickets for the occasion are $30 and embody a ceramic soup mug. Kids underneath 8 will likely be admitted freed from cost. Tickets will be bought at www.stylish.org.occasion/beds-plus-soup-and-bread-2025. The ticket worth covers the soup and complimentary espresso and smooth drinks. Alcoholic drinks are $5 per ticket, or 5 for $20.
The 23 completely different soups will likely be ready and donated by taking part eating places, many from the La Grange space, but additionally from as far-off as Summit and Evergreen Park. Many taking part eating places have been regulars at Soup and Bread through the years, and embody Antonino’s, Blackberry Market, Irish Instances Pub, and Prasino.
However others will likely be taking part for the primary time, together with Happier Now Cafe in La Grange Park and Marco’s Kitchen in La Grange’s downtown enterprise district.
Andrea Slivka, proprietor/chef at Happier Now, talked in regards to the Polish rooster soup she is going to carry to the fundraiser and the method of making it.
“Rising up, my dad did a Slovak model matzo ball soup,” she mentioned. “The Polish rooster soup I truly had a couple of years in the past at a restaurant close to the place I reside in Ukrainian Village. Then I began Googling completely different recipes, and it’s type of a mixture of various soups, with me including completely different elements and form of making it my very own.”
Slivka, a La Grange Park native, needed to do the Soup and Bread profit final yr, however was within the means of opening the enterprise and didn’t have sufficient time.
“We’re in regards to the neighborhood and I wish to be certain everyone has a heat place to remain, particularly on this climate,” she mentioned.
Friends will likely be entertained by musical artists comparable to The Vaughn Constructing, the August James Band, Crows of Fury, and an open mike session, and there additionally will likely be kid-friendly actions.
Molek spoke of the rising want for companies within the southwest suburbs for folks challenged by housing insecurity, noting that when she first began with BEDS Plus a decade in the past, their shelter often stored about 35 folks shielded from the weather.
“We have been serving a smaller inhabitants, and we’ve simply exponentially grown,” she mentioned. “We’ve impacted over 5,000 lives this yr with companies and housing, a part of that security web we’re at all times speaking about in the neighborhood.
“We wish to have the ability to hold doing that, and people non-public {dollars} and the assistance of the neighborhood actually makes an enormous distinction. Now we’re actually placing somebody in housing each 24 hours. We housed over 360 folks final yr.”
The occasion depends on greater than taking part eating places, and its sponsors embody presenting sponsor Linda Sokol Francis, E.A., Marquette Financial institution, Rockpile Methods, Lyons Township Psychological Well being Fee, C.J. Erickson Plumbing, Stantec, Burger Evening Out, Towers Racing, and the First Nationwide Financial institution of Brookfield.
Extra data on BEDS Plus, together with make donations,is at beds-plus.org.
Hank Beckman is a contract reporter for Pioneer Press.
