On April 27, there will be a community micro grade dinner called Youngstown Soup from 7-9 p.m. at the Calvin Center. At the event, people from Trumbull County will also pitch ideas for community projects.
“Folks from the community make homemade soups and your five dollars gets you all the soup, bread, salad you could eat … [and] a ballot and a vote,” Phil Kidd, community activist, said. “That night, four community projects are chosen, which have four minutes to present on their project idea.”
After the ideas are pitched, everyone will enjoy a soup buffet and other food items.
“After we come back and count up all the votes, we find out who got the most votes,” Kidd said. “Who ever got the most votes will take home all the money from the money that was raised.”
People have until halfway through the month to submit a proposal for project that can be pitched.
The idea of this kind of community event didn’t originate here in Youngstown. The notion of this soup even started in Detroit, Michigan in 2010. The Warren area has also hosted an event like this one.
“Warren’s events were extremely well organized; it was just a really great event,” Kidd said. “We all thought it was just a really great event and we need to have one of these in Youngstown.”
About 100 people attended the Warren-based event, filling the venue to maximum capacity. Since the Calvin Center can hold a few more people than the Warren event’s venue Kidd expects to fill it up.
“We are going to push it as hard as we can and get as many people as we can,” Kidd said. “With more people that come to the event, that is how much additional money the community project leaves with.”
Kidd said he feels this is a good way to get everyone from the community involved.
“What is nice about these events is that you have a nice cross-section of people,” Kidd said. “From people in the neighborhoods, to the mayor, the schoolteachers, the students and everyone in between.”
Anyone in the community can come out and make soup for the event. There have already been people that have submitted soups that they want to make.
“We have a lot of individuals in the community submitting, but I also think there will be some businesses submitting,” Kidd said.
This will be Youngstown’s first soup event. Kidd said that him and his community group want to hold four of these in Youngstown every year. Kidd expects this to be a huge success and is hoping for a lot of people to come out.
“This is a real practical and tasty way to get people from the community involved,” Kidd said.
