Stone Soup Swaps Church for Weekly Dinner, Food Pantry – Shaw Local

After seven years at the First Presbyterian Church, we have another find at the Stone Soup Social and Sharing Center in Marengo.

The weekly soup social and its food pantry held its second lunch on Tuesday at the United Methodist Church at 119 Washington Street. This group moved into the basement of the church about two weeks ago.

John Arient was one of the founders of the Stone Soup Social and Sharing Center in Marengo in 2015.

According to Arient, what they do with meals each week is not a soup kitchen for the poor, but a place for residents to go and share meals with their friends.

“Most of these people can go to any restaurant in town,” Arient said. Many people make voluntary donations each week, he added, noting that the money goes to buying food for the next meal, food for the pantry, and running costs for both.

The volunteers said what they get out of going is community.

“Here we can have the mayor sit next to the homeless. We welcome the poor here and encourage the elderly to come,” he said.

MaryLou Valasquez, 77, said she and her husband have been coming here for lunch “since they opened.” They sit at the same table and talk.

She also brings an insulated bag with salsa to add heat to the soup. “We enjoy meeting all the people we know,” said Válasquez, one friend who joined them by car from Belvidere.

Stone Soup executive Chris Murphy called the dining group “a community within a community.”

According to Murphy, guests pick up food for neighbors who don’t drive, while residents and business owners pick up or donate food for others.

“A lot of connections are made. It’s not just about food,” she said.

In addition to providing a new location for the charity, it will also provide United Methodist members with an opportunity to serve their communities, said the church’s pastor, Reverend Howard “Doc” Newcomb.

He said he has already seen parishioners stop by to help clean up or serve soup.

According to Newcomb, the space in the church basement used by Stone Soup hasn’t been used much in years. Now it’s full of pantry food every Monday distributing food boxes to those in need.

The adjoining kitchen and dining room where they serve meals are “not used much. Since (COVID-19), the building has become less and less used,” he said.

Before the pandemic, the area was used for a church day care program, but the pandemic closed the program and now there are problems finding staff, he said.

The pandemic has also changed a lot for Stone Soup, Arient said.

“Masks and soups didn’t go together,” he said. So from March 2020 until March 2022, he didn’t have his meal in the community on Tuesday due to an order for masks.

Stone Soup also has a growing need for food programs.

Before the pandemic, about 40 families would come to buy groceries every Monday. Now those numbers are approaching his more than 150 family members in need of help, Arient said.

I also couldn’t continue to allow my family to shop and pick their own food.

For more information on Stone Soup Social and Sharing Center, please visit our Facebook page facebook.com/Stonesoupmarengo.