ALA students make, donate about 500 'stone soup' bags for food bank

How many people does it take to make 500 bags of soup? About 60. Matt Buerkle of Anaconda Community Intervention (ACI) estimated that about 50 students and 10 adult volunteers were present at the Hearst Free Library Wednesday as part of the Anaconda Leadership Academy (ALA) assembling bags of stone soup to be donated to the Project Care Food Bank.

Terry Vaughn, director of the food bank, said it regularly serves 250 households per month, so it should take a couple of months before all the bags of stone soup are distributed.

ACI president Anne Calhoun said that ACI hasn’t made stone soup in a couple of years, but after the government shut down back in November, projects to stave off food insecurity were at the top of their minds.

It was a group effort, with funding for the soup ingredients – nearly 1,000 pounds worth – coming from various sources, including ACI, Anaconda Kiwanis, United Way, the Rotary Club, the Anaconda School District teachers union and private donors.

This, of course, is in line with the spirit of stone soup, which originated as a European folk tale in which one hungry person with only a stone to make soup is given various ingredients from neighbors they run into – until all people involved realized that when they all pitch in, they can feed each other with a meal they couldn’t have alone.

The stone soup was a huge undertaking, with Anne Calhoun organizing four rows of students, all with a designated ingredient.

Each bag of the layered Patchwork Soup Mix contains a half cup of barley (not all bags have this as the group ran out part of the way through), a half-cup of dried split peas, a half-cup of uncooked white rice, a half-cup of dried lentils, one tablespoon of dried parsley, one teaspoon of granulated garlic, one teaspoon of dried onion, one teaspoon of black pepper, one teaspoon of salt, a half-teaspoon of garlic powder, one teaspoon of Italian seasoning and one teaspoon of dried sage.

The directions on the bag instruct consumers to remove the seasoning packet and place the remaining ingredients in a large stockpot with 10 cups of water, stir in the contents of the seasoning packet, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally, and check after 30 minutes and add additional water if necessary.

ALA student Ada Calhoun said one bag of soup made about four servings.

The stone soup making was part of the ALA’s community service day, which included going to different places in the community and volunteering and responding to letters to Santa from students at Lincoln Primary School as an elf.

One student said they worked for two hours responding to the letters.