La Soupe’s Share Program partners with over 160 local nonprofits. These groups serve people experiencing homelessness, poverty, and personal crises. Some run after-school programs for kids, others help individuals recovering from addiction or escaping domestic violence. Many lack full kitchens or staff to prepare meals onsite.

Here’s how it works: La Soupe delivers buckets of surplus food rescued from farms, grocers, and manufacturers to partnering chefs and restaurants. Those ingredients, combined with extra scraps or items from their own kitchens, is then used to make gallons of soupe.

There are nearly 50 different types of date labels being used across the food industry since there is no federal regulation (except for infant formula). Manufacturers, food marketers, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration all use these terms to do different things without any real consistency. 

Cardinal Pacelli, a preschool through grade eight parochial school with around 420 students, began the food drive in 2022 during Catholic Schools Week.

Mimi’s journey from a volunteer at La Soupe has evolved. She has helped us establish our identity and served as a leader on our Board of Directors. She was most proud of using our tagline, Rescue | Transform | Share as the primary program that donors could support. 

Through her experience with La Soupe, Laura has gained a deeper understanding of food rescue and how it can be used to help those in need. In addition to learning about how food rescue works, she has also been amazed at how the chef team at La Soupe transforms surplus food into beautiful, nourishing meals.

Grow Six volunteers might ask someone walking by what types of greens, tomatoes, or peppers they would be interested in cooking and eating. Through its school programs, Grow Six asks what students do and do not like. Grow Six also works with UC Health patients who may have suffered a heart attack or stroke, needed a knee replacement, or are pre-diabetic, and the same questions. The hope is that asking the community what it likes will not only ensure Grow Six’s harvest is fully used, but also encourage healthy eating habits.

Across the world, it has become increasingly common to throw away surplus food. This became the practice in order to maintain price points. Source reduction, or reducing the amount of surplus food, sits on top of La Soupe’s food recovery hierarchy. But, what other options are there if surplus food already exists?  

La Soupe had the privilege of working with Mandela Washington Fellow, Koundé Cissé, for the past few weeks. Koundé owns and operates her catering business, Koundé Vision, in Mali, and came to America to diversify her dishes, expand her knowledge surrounding nutrition, teach cooking courses, and learn more about how to manage a large staff.

In 2020, La Soupe moved to Walnut Hills, one of the many predominantly Black communities in Cincinnati that no longer have their own grocery store. Rico Blackman, the founder of Black Power Initiative (BPI), another Walnut Hills-based nonprofit, said, "I can count at least ten predominantly Black neighborhoods that do not have grocery stores. I lived in one half my life, Evanston. I remember having to go to Norwood to get groceries or go to Corryville or even Oakley. My personal experience made me empathize and feel connected to the folks we serve in Walnut Hills."