Soup and Swap

Sometimes there is nothing as heart warming or soul satisfying as a bowl of homemade soup. Who was it that said your mother's chicken soup cures all ills? Someone rather wise I think...

 Making your own soup has many, many advantages:

• It uses up leftovers.
• It is easy to make - a base of onion, garlic, carrot and celery is the launchpad for so many amazing soups.
• It is cheap.
• It is the ultimate one-pot meal and therefore saves energy
• It is healthy - many of your Five a Day are in there!
• It is filling (especially when teamed with a hunk of homemade bread and butter.
• You can make lots and freeze it for easy meals in the week, or take it to work in a thermos for a healthy alternative to sandwiches.

And another lesser-known advantage of soup is that it can raise money for the BGI...

Have you wanted to raise money for the BGI but didn't quite know how? Here is your answer. Soup and Swap parties!

How do they work?

It's very simple. Host a Soup and Swap party and invite friends to come along, bring some unwanted items to swap and a small donation. Anne-Christine tells us more about her Soup and Swap:

‘I was really excited when I heard the BGI Core Support Group were planning a series of Soup and Swap fundraising events. I eagerly volunteered for the guinea pig position, just to see how successful and easy to organise it would be. I sent invites via Facebook and email to many friends and acquaintances who I thought might be interested. They read as follows:

Come to a Soup and Swap!

Please bring:
£2.00 and at least one piece of clothing you would have given to a charity shop.

In return you get:
A bowl of home-made soup with some bread (I'll make it vegan so everybody can enjoy it) and as many clothes as you like from what the others have brought along.

Your donation will go to The Big Green Idea.

Please bring a friend.

Last Thursday, I rushed back from work, heated the homemade soups prepared the day before and hoped for the best. Soon, my guests arrived and they were fab! Some brought jewellery or books as well as clothes to swap, which was very successful, especially as some, like me, had never swapped clothes before. In the end, everybody made a donation, tried some soup and made new friends. We even finished the evening playing an old board game, using chess figures as characters and yahzee dice to move in the game. All in all, even though the group was quite small, it was excellent fun. The only negative for me was not having arranged to have some men's clothing on hand - Kevin was a good sport and transformed into a glamorous rock star for the night. I can't wait for the next one!

If you are in Exeter, and interested, let me know. Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The soups I served were parsnip and pear soup and potato, bean and tomato soup.'

Are you interested in holding a Soup and Swap to raise money for the BGI? For more details and information click here.

To inspire you to create your own soup click here for some of our favourite soup recipes.