Celebrate Detroit SOUP with food, music, merchandise and information on our neighborhood SOUPs. See how your money has been put into action with past winners talking about their projects.
We also want to hear from you! We’re converting the voting booth to a confessional booth so you can share your SOUP stories and experiences.
Please note this is not a regular SOUP dinner and diners will not vote on projects. All money raised through the evening will be used to support Detroit SOUP.
Featured past winners include:
Get Fresh Cafe
The Empowerment Plan
Detroit FREQ Radio
Burners Without Borders
Fender Bender Detroit
Detroit Youth Food Brigade
Soulardarity
Rhiza Food Company
Food Field Detroit
Detroit Threat Management Documentary
Spaulding Court
Always Brewing Detroit
Empowered Flower Girl
And More!!
Future Dinners: July 14, August 11, September 22, November 3, December 8 (Dates are Subject to Change)
May SOUP Winner: $980 to The Next Top Chef-Detroit
Project Contact: Alison Heeres
Email: Alison.heeres@gmail.com
Project Summary
Next Top Chef-Detroit is a youth food systems education project, which seeks to engage and animate Detroit youth in food system advocacy through a culinary arts competition. Through innovative/engaging programming we are nurturing change-makers in the Detroit food system.
Our current food system is based on abuse. Abuse of land, low-income food-service/food production workers, cheap fossil fuels, and the communities where subsidized, cheap, processed foods are readily available in the place of healthful, fresh, nutrient rich foods.
Over the course of 2 months and 50 hours Next Top Chef provides students with hands-on food system workshops and culinary basic lessons. They learn about the issues of food production and access that affect our communities as well as about the career paths within the “good food movement.” Armed with knowledge about the importance of local food and the local food system students are placed on four culinary competition teams paired with talented Detroit chefs. Together with their chefs they train to execute a menu based on local, sustainable food ingredients for a live competition June 22nd in Eastern Market.
Why does this project matter to the Detroit community?
This project matters to the Detroit community because while we have been a recent local hot-spot for innovative food projects we need to build greater diversity within our good-food movement. If we are going to change our food system for all Detroiters the conversation needs to happen not just in chic downtown restaurants and coffee shops whose (delicious!) products are available to very few but in schools, neighborhoods, and family homes. Detroit as a whole suffers from an unjust, unhealthy, and unsustainable food system. Detroit as a whole deserves opportunities to grow skills and capacity to change that food system for the better.
How will you use SOUP grant funding towards the realization of your project?
Funds from SOUP will help Next Top Chef pay for transportation costs for getting students to and from practices and the final event as well as help to cover the cost of the final event June 22nd. Transportation is a huge issue for Detroiters in general but especially for youth. We want this program to be available to all students with a passion for the culinary arts. Our final event is something extremely special for the students. It allows them to showcase the skills they have learned over the previous 2 months. We hope to have enough funds to make the final competition very professional in order to draw good audience support for our students as well as for the program. To do this we need to rent 2 commercial kitchens for the day of event! This is about 2500.00$ alone!
What is the time frame for your project and how could you share about its progress/completion at an upcoming SOUP?
The time from of our project is April 25th-June 22nd. We could share updates on this years project on the SOUP website, at upcoming SOUP dinners, and if we were awarded a grant we would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have our 2013 students MAKE SOUP for an upcoming SOUP dinner as they share about the experience they have had in the program.
