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tim_n

This weekend I'm running a homeless awareness camp which involves scouts 'camping' in an unheated hall in cardboard boxes. I'm running a soup kitchen in the evening for food and a fire in the evening where they can rest their aching bones.
Any ideas for a good soup they'd be likely to find in a soup kitchen? I have plenty of carrots and potatoes down my allotment as well as a few other bits and pieces.
I'm not under the illusion that any of the kids will get a real experience out of it (though I do intend to hide their breakfast in rubbish bins in the morning) but does anyone have any ideas that might make the evening more fun?
I should mention I'm running it for 'free' (as you'd not have any money if homeless) so I want to keep costs down!

pigpen

I'd be tempted to throw in a whole chicken or two depending on numbers.. some thick crusty bread to dip.. maybe dumplings??

Make it more of a stew than a soup.

The bags of soup/broth mix with pearly barley and lentils etc are very cheap and filling.

heavy sponge cake for dessert? jam rolypoly/treacle sponge etc

tim_n

I've a 10gal aluminium pot, so nothing is too much of a problem (though the stove might be!) Any ideas of the quantities required? I may have as many as 15, though I expect 10 is more likely.

tim_n

So at a guess:

Whole chicken (in raw?), four chopped carrots, couple of onions, cubbed potatoes, soup mix, two pints of chicken stock?

After chicken cooked, remove, strip and add back to pan? Should I thicken with chicken gravy?

I also have a slow cooker...

Pink.

Hi Tim,

What I would do is:

Roast or boil the chicken. Strip all the meat off it, then brown the bones in the oven or under a grill as this gives the stock more flavour. Put the carcass into a pan and bring to the boil then simmer for a couple of hours. Strain the liquid into a pan. Rinse the bones with water from the kettle to get every last bit of flavour out.

Simmer the soup mix (barley, peas, lentils) in the stock. If I'm making for the numbers you are I would also add two or three chicken stock cubes for more flavour.

When the soup mix is cooked add lots of chopped carrots, leeks, parsley, celery. You could add potatoes as well but I don't usually because the barley gives enough carbohydrate. Simmer until the all the veg are cooked through then add the chicken meat and lots of black pepper to season. If you have plenty of soup mix and veggies in there you shouldn't need to thicken it.

Good luck.

Pink

emweaver

How is this homelessness aware? Very few homeless people have anything hot for dinner even if it is only soup

tim_n

I only have a 3.5l tesco slow cooker - should (can?) I do a bird in this? Or I have a bigger flatter pyrex dish I could also do it in, alternatively I can roast or boil as suggested. Trying to do this as cheap as poss.

tim_n

emweaver - true, many don't - there are however soup kitchens about and if they are lucky, they can get a hotmeal in some places.

If these kids were explorer level (14+) and not 10-14 or it was the summer I'd get away by not feeding them something hot, but this weekend will be pretty cold even in our hall (no insulation!) and I don't want them getting ill.

Trow

Many homeless do get a 'proper' meal - homelessness is not just about sleeping on the streets, there are many 'hidden homeless' that kip on family or friends floors, or who get a bed because the family put all the kids on one room in order to give someone a place to stay, or are staying in a b&b or are taking up beds they don't need in hospitals/care centres because they can't be discharged till they have an address to go to etc - in fact these kind of homeless outnumber the ones that sleep on the streets, by far. Or at least they did when I worked in housing 15 years ago.

tim_n

Thats a good point Trow, I'll encorporate that into what we talk about!

wogglemaker

If the camp fire is outdoor, you could cook billy can bread, and foil dinners, mind you thati s more back woods than homeless