New Partnership with Jus-Made

Dear Soup Friends,

The SoupMan is pleased to announce an amazing new partnership with Jus-Made; a Texas limited company that began over 60 years ago. Jus-Made produces a wide array of beverage items for the food service and retail industry in their 80,000 square foot facility

Jus-Made is now the “Official Drink Provider” for the SoupMobile and will be donating a wide assortment of nutritious and delicious drinks for our homeless men and women.
Please read the press release below that Jus-Made recently distributed announcing the partnership.


God bless you all.

David Timothy, a.k.a. The SoupMan

Dallas-Based Beverage Manufacturer, Jus-Made, LP, Partners with
The SoupMobile in Support of its Community Outreach Programs

September 24, 2009, DALLAS, TEXAS – Today, Jus-Made, LP, a beverage manufacturing company based in Dallas, announced its recent partnership with another local Dallas organization, The SoupMobile. Jus-Made, LP, will be donating beverages to The SoupMobile’s outreach program to feed the homeless.

At the forefront of the beverage-manufacturing sector for the last 54 years, Jus-made, LP, is currently teaming up with The SoupMobile to become their first official beverage partner. According to Director of Development Lon Ricker, providing beverages for the homeless is The SoupMobile’s biggest expense. For its part, Jus-made will shoulder the responsibility for donating lemonades and isotonic beverages to those in need. “We are incredibly grateful for Jus-Made’s support, especially in this difficult economic time, where our limited resources are being met with a growing demand for our services,” says Ricker.

“The SoupMobile does it right and served thousands and thousands of meals last year without a bureaucracy. For each meal to have something just as good to drink with it is what we want to happen. We’re excited to give back to our very own community,” says John Hampton, President of Jus-Made, LP. “Jus-Made hopes that the SoupMobile can put its funds to work in other areas. It will be touching to see what kind of a boost this gives to the SoupMobile and the wonderful people associated with it who work so hard and smart to alleviate human suffering right down the street from our plant.”


About The SoupMobile

In 2003, David Timothy, a.k.a The SoupMan founded the SoupMobile, a local non-profit, and “mobile” soup kitchen. This year alone, The SoupMobile will serve more than 150,000 meals to homeless in the Dallas community. Its mission is to provide food, clothing and shelter to those who need it most.

http://www.soupmobile.org/

About Jus-Made

Jus-Made, LP has manufactured a wide variety of products in the beverage sector for the last 54 years. The company was originally founded by Lamar Dial, one of the creators of Orange Julius as well as a member of the development team that eventually created the 7-Eleven Slurpee©. The company has received an “A” rating from the BRC certifying body for the Global Food Safety Initiative and its facility in Dallas includes modern beverage processing equipment, efficient pasteurizing processes, large blending tanks, and effective production measures also certified under HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points System). Jus-Made’s products can be found throughout the United States in grocery stores, wholesale clubs, convenience stores, restaurants and bars.

http://www.jus-made.com/

Contact:
Mark Rudkin
Vice President, Marketing
mrudkin@jus-made.com
972-241-5544

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

CHEF GENE!!!

Dear SoupFriends

The SoupMobile serves 150,000 hot, healthy, nutritious meals every year to the homeless in the Dallas area.

Yes, that's an amazing number of meals and its all because of an amazing man we affectionately call Chef Gene. He is the Head Chef at the SoupMobile and is directly responsible for making sure thousands and thousands of homeless men and women get the food they literally need to survive.

Chef Gene isn't just a great cook. He is a wonderful man with a kind spirit and a passion for reaching out to the 'least of these' in our community. He believes in the words of Jesus who said, "Feed MY Sheep'.

Every weekday volunteers (known as Assistant Chefs) lend a hand to Chef Gene (who is also a volunteer) as he prepares the hot and hearty meals for the homeless. As they begin to prepare the meals each day, Chef Gene reminds his assistants to put the 'secret' ingredient into the food. Of course that 'secret' ingredient is LOVE!

Chef Gene was recently featured in a full length article on the front page of the Dallas Morning News on August 29, 2009.
Click on this link to read that story: http://tinyurl.com/mx6qsp

p.s. I know you may be thinking. 'I want to help Chef Gene feed the homeless.' Well there are two main ways you can help. One is you can actually volunteer in the kitchen with Chef Gene as an Assistant Chef--no experience required as Chef Gene will tell you exactly what you need to do.

Second you can help Chef Gene by helping him buy the food he needs. Each meal he cooks costs an average of $1.00. So whether you donate One Dollar or One Million Dollars or anywhere in between, you will be helping Chef Gene 'Feed HIS Sheep'.
Click on this link to find out more about helping: http://www.soupmobile.org/

p.p.s. Well I've got to go. My nose detects some wonderful cooking smells from Chef Gene's kitchen and I'm going to head in there and see if he might give me a sample.

God Bless you all.

David Timothy, a.k.a. The SoupMan

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN!!!! (PFH)

Ah, Pennies from Heaven! Sounds like an old movie title. Well in fact it is. It's from 1936 and stars Bing Crosby. Some of you younger folk might not remember Bing, but every year at Christmas you hear one of his most famous songs on the radio---'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.'

However it seems I digress. Back to Pennies from Heaven---2009. Did you know that the SoupMobile has been running a (PFH) campaign for the past year. What's that all about you ask?

Well the SoupMan got the Pennies from Heaven idea from a 10 year old boy from Michigan named Andrew. A few years ago Andrew decided to raise money to help his school buy equipment. His goal was to collect ONE MILLION PENNIES--which equals $10,000 and donate the money to his school. It took him #14 months to do it, but do it he did. I was truly inspired when I heard this story. I figured if a 10 year old boy could collect One Million Pennies for a good cause, so could you. So I put out the challenge to groups, churches, schools, organizations and individuals to have their own Pennies from Heaven campaign whereby they would collect pennies and donate them to the SoupMobile so we could buy food for the homeless.

So far over 20 groups/individuals have signed up and started collecting pennies. The top penny collector to date is the John D. Horn High School in Mesquite, Texas. They collected just over ONE HALF MILLLION PENNIES and donated that money to the SoupMobile to be used to feed the homeless. As we speak they are still collecting more pennies.

So now I can hear you thinking, 'Hey, anybody could collect pennies--even I could do it.' Well the SoupMan couldn't agree more. You can do it and it will be for a good cause. Want to know more about joining the SoupMan in collecting pennies which will be used to feed the homeless. Simply go to www.soupmobile.org and click on PENNIES FROM HEAVEN and read all about it.

Guess what!!! If a 10 year old boy can do it, so can you!!!

God bless you all,

David Timothy, a.k.a. The SoupMan

Christmas in August???

Dear SoupFriends,

Here in Dallas in the heart of SoupMobile land its August. Temperatures are hovering around 100 degrees every day. In a word it's hot! So who's thinking about Christmas???

Well actually the SoupMan and his fabulous SoupTeam are thinking about Christmas. Planning is in full swing for the SoupMobile's 5th Annual Christmas Angel Project which will take place Dec. 24th & 25th, 2009.

This Christmas the SoupMobile will take 500 homeless men and women right off the streets of Dallas and put them up at the downtown Dallas Hyatt Regency Hotel. Yes, THE Hyatt Regency. All of our homeless friends will receive new clothes, fabulous gifts, great food, lots of love and a huge banquet in their honor. And when they wake up on Christmas morning it will be in a safe warm bed at the Hyatt---not in some cardboard box under a bridge.

Planning to house and entertain 500 homeless men and women for Christmas is an enormous task. Fortunately for the SoupMobile we have just the right people in place to run our Christmas Angel Project this year. The Chairman of this years event is the SoupMobile's Director of Development--Lon Ricker. Assisting Lon is our very own ace Volunteer Coordinator--Linda Graf. Two dynamic people with a passion for helping the homeless. Our grateful thanks to Lon and Linda for their faithful service.

Last year in 2008 we had over 700 volunteers come down to the Hyatt and volunteer to help us with the event. This year we estimate over 1,000 volunteers will attempt to sign up. I know what you are thinking. "I want to be part of this years event." Well, no worries as we would love to have you, but remember its first come first serve. Every year we have to shut down the volunteer slots in December. So if you want to volunteer be sure to sign up early. How and when can you sign up? The magic date is November 1st, 2009. On that date simply go to www.soupmobile.org and click on CHRISTMAS ANGEL PROJECT and you can sign up right on line.

Volunteering at the Christmas Angel Project will be the best Christmas gift you ever give. And when you see the smiles on the faces of our homeless friends and the tears in their eyes, it will be the best Christmas gift you ever receive.

God bless you all.

David Timothy, a.k.a. The SoupMan

SoupMobile is a Dignitary for the Nation!!

The SoupMobile has just received a huge honor as a host to U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). We are so humbled that the IVLP has chosen the SoupMobile to sponsor their international volunteers while they are visiting the United States.

As a little background, the IVLP is designed to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries through carefully designed visits that reflect the participants' professional interests and support U.S. foreign policy goals. That’s right! The SoupMobile is a direct reflection what America is about, serve before self.

The SoupMobile is very excited to welcome our visitors to the United States that will be coming from the countries of Columbia and Morocco.

The SoupMan is joined by Jhoana Moreno (Columbia), and Najwa Laassekri (Moracco)

Tezita Getadrew from IVLP and International Volunteers preparing snacks for the homeless.

JUST LIKE I PROMISED!!

Here is the link for the news story this morning. Beautifully done!!!

http://www.wfaa.com/video/featured-index.html?nvid=384090