a passing conversation with george influenced me to finally address the untimely demise of saturday soup. in order for me to explain why saturday soup went bust, you need to first understand how it was being operated.

saturday soup was a skeleton operation. it was the brainchild of a poor college student, who happens to love soup, cooking for others, and believed in the value of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. that poor college student is me. every friday i would spend some of my savings on fresh produce, and prepare GALLONS of soup in my kitchen. on saturday mornings i would rise before the sun, and bake vegan biscuits. then i would fill out a personal message on each soup bag, and pack away the goods in my roommate's x-wing, which i used to deliver the soup.

believe it or not, this process took a lot of time, and money. i'd give away soup for free if i could, but like i said, i'm a poor college student, so i had to charge $4 for a pint or $6 for a quart. i didn't create saturday soup to make a profit. if i made a profit it was usually 20 some dollars, after you subtracted the cost of ingredients, packaging, and gas it took to fuel the x-wing. sometimes i barely broke even. that 20 some dollars went towards next week's soup.

the untimely demise of saturday soup occurred several months ago when i delivered broccoli rice soup. it was a big order, and i was excited to deliver it. i get a particular type of thrill when i walk up someone's walkway with a bag of soup in my hands. it makes me happy knowing that people will be eating (and hopefully enjoying) something i created. unfortunately, the broccoli rice soup would be the last saturday soup.

here's why: i don't mind when i show up at someone's house and they don't have the money on them, or they happen to just step out. i understand. i trust people and figure they'll pay me eventually. it happens now and then. no big deal. but on that fateful day, i only received payment from 2.5 of my soupies. there were a ton of orders, and i was out A LOT of money.

i assume that people figured, "oh, i'll pay her next time i see her" but unfortunately there was no next time. or maybe they thought, "i should send her a check for that $6 i owe" and then forgot about it because $6 doesn't seem like much. but $4 or $6 is a lot when MANY people owe you it. i'm not mad at anyone. i remember driving around that day with my roommate, delivering soup and laughing at the absurdity. i was never angry. and i'm not now. i'm just disheartened, because i really liked saturday soup and i still want to do it.

i hope to revive saturday soup this summer but i think i'll need to make some changes in the matters of payment, and delivery times. if anyone has any suggestions, email me at saturdaysoupGR@gmail.com.