How to Raise Money for the BGI with Soup and Swap

Ask as many friends as you can to a Soup and Swap party. You would probably need a group of at least six friends, and each friend would take it in turn to cook the soup at their house. Each person pays a donation of £2-£5 for their lunch/dinner and a cheque for the total amount raised would be written to the BGI.

Each group could set up a Facebook group to put their recipes on, along with pictures of events, etc., which would promote the Soup and Swap events and hopefully encourage more Soup and Swap groups to start up and start raising money.

The swap part is the fun bit and helps people recycle or reuse unwanted items. They could be books, children's toys, unwanted gifts, etc. The group could decide on a theme each month or they could stick to books, or have a ‘no rules' policy. Clothes are a successful item to bring along to swap as trying them on and choosing is always fun!

Ways to swap the items can be on a first come first served basis or a slightly more fun way. One way we trialled in our office was to bring in anything unwanted - just one item each - and put them all together. Then we pulled names out of a hat and each person chose what they wanted when their name was drawn. If two people wanted the same item, we had fun by bidding for it and whoever was willing to pay the highest price (pennies really) won, which made extra revenue for the BGI donation. If there were unwanted items left, it was our rule that the person who brought them took them home or they went to the local charity shop.

However you choose to host your Soup and Swap party, we hope you have fun and enjoy some lovely homemade soup. Thank you for taking the time to help raise money for the BGI.

Good luck!

If you are stuck for soup recipes click here.