Chalmers Community Services Centre is back with Harvest Bowls to raise money for the organization with warm bowls of soup.
The event is on Oct. 24 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Harcourt Memorial United Church on 87 Dean Ave.
Tickets are available online and the money from them will go to help support Chalmers to provide healthy and culturally appropriate food for its guests.
“We're just finding we're getting so many more people this year. We have new people signing up, and more food every week. And yet our budget doesn't go as far as it used to because the cost of food is more. So we were trying a number of things, but we decided to have this fundraiser,” said Merrill Pierce, Chalmers volunteer and one of the event organizers.
The event space at the church was donated, local potters have donated handmade bowls, 12 Guelph restaurants are donating soup and bakeries are donating bread.
Attendees can choose a bowl and bring it home with them at the end of the night.
Some types of soup to expect are lemon chicken soup from Lucky Belly, coconut curry butternut squash soup from Einstein’s Cafe, sweet corn soup from the The Bollywood Bistro, dal from Diana Downtown, and more.
People are welcomed to try all the soups while supplies last.
When Pierce used to go the event as an attendee she would try a small ladle of each of the soups since she wanted to know what they tasted like.
“Most of the restaurants when we walked in, said sure we'd love to help out. We have a very community minded group here in Guelph,” Pierce said.
The price of groceries “no doubt will be part of the conversations because it’s part of our conversations now,” she said.
“What's happening we're finding is, so many agencies we’re all competing for fewer dollars. People who are doing anything in the community trying to help out people. And so it's very, very difficult to raise more money. But hopefully if groceries go down a little bit our dollars will stretch farther,” she said.
Pierce's personal donations have changed from donating food and a yearly monetary donation to now a monthly monetary donation because it goes farther.
“I'm a senior on a fixed income so it's more difficult for us to give. And so we're doing what we can. It's just difficult times period,” she said.
To make the event successful she hopes it sells out. There is a cap of 200 tickets.
If people are unable to attend a donation to Chalmers is welcomed.
