We are excited to announce the 4 excellent projects to present at Tuesday's dinner.
Come support one of these projects on Tuesday, September 26th @ Church Street United Methodist Church - doors open @ 5:30 p.m.
$5 suggested donation gets you soup, salad AND a vote!
Ivan Racheff House and Gardens - Appealing Children's Garden: A City Garden for Children: Creating an Appealing and Interesting Nature Learning Experience in a Children's Garden.
Kickstand - Vestal Bicycle Shop: Vestal KickStand Community Bicycle Shop will be a source for bikes in Vestal as well as a resource for repairs, bicycle safety, and all bike related information.
Sierra Club - Inspiring Connections Outdoors: Project goals are to support student growth through environmental education, inspire cross cultural understanding, and increase civic participation.
Catalyst Sports - Creating Access to Our Waterways: We are fundraising for kayak carts which will allow adaptive athletes to access different sites for kayaking in/around Knoxville.
SOUP is a community dinner that is part pot luck and part planned. It is an opportunity for the community to gather, share and connect. It is an opportunity to support projects that, in some manner, benefit the community as a whole. It’s where Democracy meets Charity.
SOUP has been described as:
a collaborative situation
a public dinner
a platform for connection
a relational hub bringing together communities
a forum for discussion
an opportunity to support creative people in pursuit of the betterment of their community
Get inspired! Watch a 2 minute video of a SOUP dinner in progress.
How it works: We will open the doors at 5:30 pm, collecting a $5.00 donation from attendees. At 6:00, 4 preselected individuals or groups will present an idea or project they would like to carry out. Each presenter (or group) has 4 minutes to inform, impassion and inspire the audience. They then have 4 minutes to answer questions from the audience. Dinner is then served while attendees digest, discuss and deliberate over the projects presented. They then cast a ballot for the project they would like most to fund.
When the evening nears a close, the ballots are counted and the group that has the most votes takes home the money from the door to help fund their project. Democracy meets Charity…
Proposals can be for anything that will benefit the community or society in general. Past winning projects have improved greenways and nature trails, provided exercise equipment for seniors, funded back to school drives, supported other charitable endeavors and even launched a small business with a social focus. There are no hard and fast rules to what a proposal should be, only that someone envisions it, asks for it and the diners vote for it.
Winners are asked to return to a subsequent dinner and share with us the success of their project. Dinners will also feature an artist each month.
After presentations, diners will have about an hour to eat, share and connect with others while voting for the project they like best. By about 7:45, the votes will be tallied and the winning project will be awarded all donations raised at the door. NOTE: a suggested donation of $5 will be collected at the door. All money raised at the door goes to the winning proposal.
A huge THANKS to all our sponsors and those who contributed to help make our SOUP dinners a success. We especially appreciate Dara's Garden for providing the beautiful dinner location, Rothchild Catering for the wonderful food and service, and DrinkKnox for the delicious mocktails!
Thanks to Carol Lacava and Raychel Shelton for providing sign language interpreting services for tonight's dinner!
Please help us thank our supporters with YOUR support of their business!
Raffle Items
71 South
Adam Fritts
Ann Viera
Aslan Foundation
Bobbye Edwards
Cameron Brooks (city council candidate)
CommonPlace Coffee + Communioty
Debbie Helsley (city council candidate)
Girls Gotta Eat Good
Highland Design
Ijams Nature Center
LB Endurance Lab
Mike and Jan Brown
Navitate Canopy Adventures
PAWZ Dog Services
Redbud Kitchen
River Dog Bakery
Round Up Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor
Shoney's of Knoxville
South Coast Pizza
South Knox Family Care
South Press
Southside Waterfront Neighborhood Association
Stanley's Greenhouse
Tea & Treasures
The Mattress Place
The Sugar Queen Creamery
Volunteers
Adam Fritts
Carson Dailey
Danny Gray
Debbie Mallard
Ellary Hutsell
Eric Johnson
Gayla Guignard
Janice Tocher
Kara Strouse
Lisa Fall
Lisa Horn
Lizzie Gaver
Michael Fuller
Tommy Smith
Valarie Johnson
Knoxville SOUP Proposals
Submit your idea for a community project for Knoxville for the next Knoxville SOUP. Proposal deadline for the September dinner is Sept. 17th.
Knoxville SOUP Needs Volunteers
To continue successful dinners, Knoxville SOUP needs the support of the community. You can help by volunteering to help at the dinner or help plan the next event. If you're interested, complete our online volunteer application.