MEMPHIS, Tennessee — One of the biggest and tastiest fundraising events is being altered a bit because of the pandemic, but the eating will continue.
Youth Villages' Annual Soup Sunday fundraising event is back this weekend but with an entirely different setup. For the last 15 years, the event has been held at FedEx Forum on a Sunday drawing in thousands of people looking to sample good food over several hours.
This year, there will be no in-person event.
Instead of being a one-day event, Soup Sunday will be held Saturday and Sunday.
Youth Villages partnered with restaurants to create take-home meal packages to support them. Those packages are no longer available but there are still many opportunities to support them this weekend.
People can go to any of the 20 plus restaurants Youth Villages has partnered with.
“This weekend they’re going to feature a menu item or items where either partial or full proceeds will go to Youth Villages so we tried to get a collection of restaurants," Melissa Williams, Youth Villages development coordinator, said. “Wherever you are in the city and surrounding area we’ve got you covered.”
And yes, soup will be on the menu.
Youth Villages is a non-profit organization that supports kids with emotional and behavioral problems through counseling and mentorship.
Williams said Soup Sunday directly benefits the mentoring program. With the pandemic altering everyone's lives, Williams said the kids they work need more help than ever,
“It’s been hard on the kids, especially our kids who don’t have family members," Williams said. “The kids love [the mentoring program]. It’s like their special person they can talk to. Once things start opening back up the mentors can take them and do things with them.”
Williams said the mentoring program was sidelined a bit during the pandemic but is back up and running.
To find out more about Soup Sunday this year and the restaurants participating, click here.
