By Karen Carruth

Soup? What’s a soup? It’s so simple it’s genius. Members of the community gather together, pay a small donation, listen to pitches (or make a pitch) which must benefit their community in some way. Have a bowl of soup and a chat with fellow locals. They all vote on the best idea, and the winner takes away all the donations to use to help take their idea on to the next stage. That’s a soup. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it.
I’m speaking to Kathryn Welch, who is the founder of the Stirling Soup, which held its first meeting on May 27 and she tells me it’s not a new idea.
Kathryn says: “It all began in Detroit in the USA, and it has spread throughout the world. I went down to Essex to see how the Colchester Soup was run, and I loved it. I knew as I was sitting there that I was going to have to set this up in Stirling. I knew it was necessary. The wonderful thing about the soups is that there is already a working model that works really well.
“I have had the most generous and encouraging support from the local community, locals keen to get involved. We have 10 volunteers now, none of which I knew before I started this.”
Kathryn has taken on this challenge off her own back. She does work as a fund raiser and is a charity trustee, but this is something that she feels so strongly about that she couldn’t resist giving it a go. She has committed to hosting two ‘soups’, the one in May and another in September. The September meeting also gives the winner from the first meeting the chance to come back and give the community an update on what they have achieved with the donations they were given.
Kathryn continues: “Donating five pounds is not too much, and everyone gets soup, which a local company is donating, and bread which is donated from a local artisan baker, we will have two bands playing and the chance to meet up with other like-minded people. We are hoping to make it as much as a fun evening as possible. Definitely not a boring community meeting. 
“What I found out from the Colchester meeting was that even the pitches that didn’t win the money usually came away with some excellent contacts or people willing to volunteer. For example, a pitch for a children’s play park was given a load of building supplies from a contractor that was sitting in the audience.”
The pitchers are given four minutes each to get their idea across. Kathryn hopes for between three and five pitches. No power point presentations allowed – as the audience generally switches off – but they can bring along props. There is a very short question time and then it is time for the next pitch.
The time to chat, while having the soup, appears to be the important part of the evening when the locals compare notes, idea, opinions, and as cliché as it sounds, meet new people.
The donation at the door, even though it is just £5 or whatever you wish to donate, does make a huge difference to these small project. Kathryn says: “Five pounds given to a huge charitable organisation is a drop in the ocean, but to these small, start up ideas, it can make a huge difference. So the donation we can offer should give them a kick start to get the idea off the ground.
“It makes our local people who take the time to come along, and to give their £5, the chance to see the direct difference that their money can make.”
“There is only two criteria that the pitchers have to meet. The idea has to benefit Stirling/shire. And the amount of money we donate has to make a marked difference. There’s no point in coming if you have a huge bank roll funding the project and this would be a small addition. It has to make a direct difference.”

What happened on the night

Kathryn was overwhelmed by the amount of people who came along, more than 130 people for the first meeting was a tremendous boost to the confidence of the venture. 
Kathryn had hoped that they would reach somewhere in the region of £200 for the winning pitch, so was delighted to find that the generous donations had brought the total to £630. She says: “It was awesome! Everything we could have wished for and more! We completely filled the room, with standing room only by the end.  
“We ate fantastic food (by Riverside Bakery and Sprinkle Happiness Catering), had brilliant live music from Iain Morrison and George Gilman (of Stirling Uni Live Music Society) and had gorgeous hand and arm massages from Lush Stirling. 
“One of the nicest things was the sense of community in the room – people were signing up to volunteer with the projects, offering to support the next Soup and finding new opportunities to work together.”
Morna O’May, who pitched for Contact the Elderly said: “I was overwhelmed with the volunteering offers I received for Contact Teas following my pitch and I am looking forward to launching yet another tea party group in Forth Valley as a result of the support received at the event.”
The winner, which was Stirling Citizens for Sanctuary, said: “We’re thrilled  that SCfS bagged the pot of £630 at tonight’s Stirling Soup! What a great evening! We enjoyed the music, bread and soup, made many new connections, and, of course, we are delighted to have received the funding. We were up against four other very worthy and deserving projects, and we hope that they also find a way to get the resources they need to succeed.”
Kathryn sumed it up perfectly. “As it is the community that is voting, if the project is not wanted by the community, then it won’t get the money. It’s that simple.”

The pitches:

1. Stirling Conservation Volunteers – Running ‘Green Gyms’, which help people (especially those who need extra support, are isolated or long term unemployed) develop their skills, whilst carrying out conservation work to improve our natural landscapes.
2. Contact the Elderly – a volunteer-led group who run afternoon tea parties once a month for older people who might not otherwise get much social contact.
3. Stirling Citizens for Sanctuary – a new local group helping to settle and integrate Syrian refugees into the community.
4. Couthie Cantie – a ‘real food’ advocacy who want to purchase a mobile cooking kit to take into schools who don’t have any cooking facilities, so that all children can learn to cook from scratch.
5. Play park plan – A group of local mums who want to run a community fun day to officially open a local park. The group have fundraised to buy lots of new play equipment for their local park, and the fun day will give them a chance to celebrate what they’ve achieved and encourage everyone to enjoy their local park.  

The winner was Citizens for Santuary's idea - all donations went to this project.
 

To apply to pitch: email stirlingsoup@outlook.com
To reserve a ticket to attend: stirlingsoup.eventbrite.com

Details:
Meeting on September 2, 2016
Venue to be confirmed, check the facebook page for an update. 

The website is www.facebook.com/stirlingsoup.