Cincinnati Chefs Combat Waste, Feed Communities

Chef Ross, from Mio’s Pizza, creates soupe for LA SOUPE’S Bucket Brigade with surplus food.

In 2019, Suzy DeYoung, founder of La Soupe, suffered a kitchen injury that left her unable to finish the weekly food commitments and fulfill its mission to rescue and transform food waste into nutritious meals for those in need.

But that setback sparked something incredible.

Unable to cook herself that week, DeYoung turned to her network of Cincinnati chefs for help. The response was incredible. Restaurants and chefs stepped up, using their kitchens to turn rescued food into soupe. Orders were fulfilled, and those in need of food were provided with it.

This moment goes down in La Soupe lore as the ‘Soupe Surge.’ What began as an emergency workaround quickly became the foundation for the program now known as the Bucket Brigade—a collaborative effort that today produces more than 20,000 servings of soupe annually.

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.

A Bucket Brigade LABEL filled out for a Soupe from Brown Dog cafe.

Once completed, volunteers pick up the soupes from the restuaruants, portion it out, and deliver them to La Soupe’s Share partners, who distribute meals to those who need them most.

“It’s a really good way to engage the Cincinnati chef community,” said Emmy Schroder, La Soupe’s Executive Director. “Not only are we reducing food waste, but we’re deepening our ties with the restaurant community.”

Mio’s Pizza has been one of the longest members of the Bucket Brigade. 

“The whole La Soupe mission is genius,” said Ross Webster, a chef at the pizzeria. “The whole La Soupe mission is genius, and the Bucket Brigade allows us to support from where we are, making it too convenient not to participate in. It allows us to be zero waste with all our vegetable scraps—we cut many of them, and all go in the stock now rather than the garbage.”

The Summit Hotel is another partner of the program. After hosting events and athletic teams, the hotel often has leftover premium produce and protein. Rather than letting that surplus go to waste, the staff at the Summit turns it into gourmet soupes for La Soupe.

“They turn that surplus into incredible soupes,” said Amy Scarpello, Director of the Share Program. “And they know we’ll pick it up and get it where it’s needed.”

For many chefs, the Bucket Brigade is more than just a charitable project—it’s a creative outlet.

“We work with fine dining restaurants that don’t always get to experiment,” Scarpello said. “This gives them a chance to play with new ingredients and make something meaningful.” 

Webster agrees. “As a pizza chef, this gives me a great side project. I learn something new every time an ingredient shows up that I don’t recognize,” he said.

Today, the Bucket Brigade is an essential part of the organization’s mission—and a model for how a city’s food community can unite around purpose.

“The goal is to maintain our impact—20,000 servings a year—and keep fighting food waste as a community,” said Scarpello.