Guest Blogger!!

Dear SoupFriends,

The SoupMan is pleased to have a guest blogger on his blog this week. Let me introduce Wendy Leth-Steensen. She is a freelance writer located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has a passion for helping others. Please enjoy her writing and look for the SoupMan to be back on line next week.


FEEDING THE HOMELESS ONE LUNCH AT A TIME

Have you ever made 1,000 sandwiches in one sitting? It's easy! Take about 45 volunteers, put them all in a room, and add lots and lots of bread, cheese and meat. Two hours later, you'll have enough food prepared to feed lunch to the hungry and homeless for a week, not to mention a satisfied feeling that you gave back to your community.

On Saturday mornings throughout the year, eager volunteers from Random Acts of Kindness (http://meetup.com/randomacts/) (RAK) gather at the eXcuses eXtreme cafe' (http://www.excusesdeepellum.com/) in Deep Ellum in Dallas. General Manager of the cafe', Barbara Martinez, not only provides the long tables for food prep assembly lines, but also coffee and ice tea for everyone. The venue also becomes a popular place to stay afterwards and chat with new friends over a mid-day meal.

"It's a great way to meet new people, and it is also for a good cause", says Al McCraw, assistant organizer for RAK. "The SoupMobile was among the first organizations RAK became affiliated with. When I met David Timothy of the SoupMobile, I was so touched by his story that I wanted to help. Another RAK volunteer, Robin Nichols, was already doing the sandwich-making parties, and I was organizing events in Deep Ellum that benefited the SoupMobile as well as Deep Ellum merchants and local artists. I still do these benefits but also take Robin's lead and do sandwich-making events for RAK."

According to the SoupMobile, there are more 10,000 hungry and homeless people in Dallas. What can you do to help out? Here are three things:
1) Give a few hours on a Saturday morning to prepare sandwiches
2)Provide a donation of bread, cheese, bologna, mustard, plastic gloves and/or Ziploc bags
3) Have a willingness to help better the lives of the disadvantaged in our community

If this sounds like something you want to do, log on to RAK on Meetup.com (http://www.meetup.com/randomacts/) and sign up to make a difference!

About Random Acts of Kindness

Random Acts of Kindness (http://www.meetup.com/randomacts/) is a non-profit group organized via the online social networking portal Meetup.com. Currently, it has over 1,800 members. Volunteers come from all walks of life in terms of ethnicity, age, profession and religion. Upcoming events include serving meals at the Salvation Army, participating in senior day at Ashford Hall , helping a soldier phone home, and cleaning up White Rock Lake and the Cottonbelt Trail.

About the SoupMobile

The SoupMobile(http://www.soupmobile.org/) is a non-profit mobile soup kitchen feeding, clothing and caring for the needy and homeless in the Dallas area. It is based out of Deep Ellum and serves around 600 meals a day Monday through Friday. In 2009 the SoupMobile will serve up to 150,000 meals.

Wendy Leth-Steensen, freelance writer located in Dallas-FortWorth area