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I’m glad to hear many of you are enjoying the fundraising ideas featured on my blog! Now that the cooler days of autumn are upon us, I’ll share how to host a Soup Day fundraiser.
Our nursing home doesn’t have a cafe where the staff can buy meals. So, a few times during the colder months of the year, we host a Soup Day.
This allows staff to purchase a bowl of hot, delicious soup as an alternative to bringing their bag lunches. In addition, the money we raise helps support some of our smaller projects at the nursing home.
It takes just a few simple steps to create a successful Soup Day:
- Recruit volunteers and employees to make a crockpot full of their favorite homemade soup.
- Set up the crockpots on long tables and post the recipe beside each soup.
- Provide sides such as bread, crackers, beverages, and cookies or bars.
- Charge a flat fee for the meal with the option of paying an extra fee to try more than one soup.
- Invite a local chef or celebrity to come in to sample the soups and pick a winning recipe. Provide a cooking-related prize for the winner (donated by a local business, of course).
Check out a few of our favorite soup day recipes:
Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- Rinse wild rice and place it in a slow cooker. Add chicken, onion, celery, carrots, broth, and poultry seasoning. Cover and cook on low for about 7 hrs. When the soup has finished cooking, remove chicken and shred with a fork. Return shredded chicken to slow cooker and stir. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour and let the mixture bubble for about 1 minute. Slowly whisk milk into the mixture. Add to slow cooker and stir.
Zuppa Tuscana
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage, (browned & drained well)
- 4-6 potatoes, (cubed into small pieces)
- 1 onion, (chopped)
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 1/2 bunch kale, (torn into small pieces)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream (may substitute half & half))
- 2 tbsp flour
- Place sausage, onion, garlic, potatoes, and broth into the slow cooker. Add just enough water to cover ingredients. Cook on low 5-6 hrs. (until potatoes are soft). 30 minutes before serving: Mix flour into the cream until smooth. Add cream & kale to slow cooker and stir. Cook 30 minutes on high.
Slow Cooker Corn Chowder
- 6 slices bacon
- 1/2 cup onion, (chopped)
- 2 cups potatoes, (diced)
- 20 oz. frozen whole kernel corn, (broken apart)
- 16 oz. cream-style corn
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp Lowry’s seasoned salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup chicken broth
- Fry bacon until crisp, then dice and set aside. Saute onion and potatoes in bacon drippings for about 5 minutes, then drain well. Combine all ingredients in the slow cooker, and stir thoroughly. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hrs.
For more ideas and three more delicious recipes, check out this post on how to host a chili feed.
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