Soup-kit sales raise funds for Habitat

Habitat for Humanity in Springfield raises money every holiday season by selling its signature 12-bean soup kit.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20141204/NEWS02/712049836

A large contingent of volunteers help tie and label handmade bags containing 12-bean soup beans and spices to help raise funds for Habitat for Humanity at the Springfield Community Center. Vicki Balle, below, pours beans that have been mixed for measuring into a smaller bowl. Photo: Photos by Len EmeryPublished December 4, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Soup-kit sales raise funds for Habitat By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — From little colorful beans, members of the Springfield Habitat for Humanity say they hope great things will grow. The local Habitat chapter was busy Wednesday morning packing and packaging its signature bean soup kits, which include a small package of spices (secret recipe!) to go with the combination of 12 different beans and peas. The spices smell suspiciously like chili powder, garlic and red pepper flakes. “One kit makes a crock pot full of soup. For $3, you get a lot of food,” said Vicki Ball, a member of the Habitat chapter’s fundraising committee. The soup kits sell for $3, and help the chapter raise money for the building supplies they need to build their next house, which will be on Summit Avenue, next to another Habitat house. Like a well-oiled machine, about a dozen volunteers in the pool room at Springfield Community Center scooped the 12 different bean varieties into one colorful mix, divided them among large stainless steel bowls, and then the assembly line took over. One person scooped two cups of the beans and poured them, through a cut-off funnel, into a holiday-themed calico tube bag, while another person tied the bag shut with bright yarn while attaching a recipe card and making sure a spice bag was included. In all, the dozen volunteers took about two hours to make about 450 bags, to match the other 450 bags they put together last week. In all, the chapter sells 960 soup kits. Each bag, Ball said, equals a 2-by-4 for the chapter. “We don’t borrow money,” she said. The group hopes to have raised enough money by next year to select a new family and start its ninth house. The Springfield Habitat chapter has been making and selling the hundreds of soup kits for about 18 years, and they have the many steps down pat. The filled tubes, most of them made with Christmas-themed fabric, are then put into recycled Staples paper boxes, 30 units to a box. Ball had talked the Staples store in Claremont, N.H., into saving the boxes for Habitat’s soup effort. Garet Richardson was in charge of making the mix of beans, peas and lentils. He scooped adzuki, yellow split peas, red lentils, green split peas, black-eyed beans, Great Northern beans, black beans, baby lima beans, small red beans, pintos and kidney beans. “It’s gluten free,” Ball said, noting she had removed barley from the mix a few years ago out of concern for gluten-sensitive potential customers. The group had bought 75 pounds of each legume, put them into a large white bucket and started divvying up the ingredients. It was the first day of being a Habitat volunteer for Debbie Ankuda, who had the job of attaching the recipe card and tying the bag shut with colorful yarn. It was the second Christmas bean bag soup bee for Becky Allen Matthews of Rockingham, who said she was concerned that so many of the Springfield Habitat volunteers were approaching senior status. “The next generation needs to step up,” she said. The Habitat soup kits can be purchased in Springfield at the Springfield Food Coop, River Valley Credit Union, Windsor County Credit Union, Mascoma Bank, One Credit Union, and Bibens Home Center. In Chester, the kits can be purchased at Baba A Louis Bakery, Lisai’s Market and Erskine’s Grain Store. In Ludlow, they are being sold at Cook’s Cupboard, Chaos Casbah, Aubuchon Hardware, The Silver Spoon and Depot Street Gallery and the Wine and Cheese Depot. In Westminster, the kits are available at Allen Brothers Market and in Bellows Falls at Village Square Books. And in Walpole, N.H., the kits are available at Discount Food Warehouse and Mascoma Bank. Also, Habitat for Humanity will be at the Beyond the Unicorn Craft Fair on Saturday at Riverside Middle School in Springfield, selling the soup kits as well as kitchen linens from Kay Dee Designs of Rhode Island, which were donated to the group for its fundraising effort.