Orlando SOUP

Such a simple but perfect concept. Attendees buy a $ 10 ticket to the event (held at the charming East End Market), most of which goes to a microgrant that will be given to one of four wonderful and worthy community programs. During the event you’ll hear presentations about each of the programs, and then over dinner — soup, salad, and bread — you’ll get to vote for which program will get funded.
I loved hearing about the great work being done in the Orlando area (coding programs for kids, pop-​up dinner parties), and it was fun to discuss and debate the merits of each program with the people at my table. At the end of the night the votes are tallied and one deserving project gets a check (and you’ve had a lovely evening getting to know your fellow Orlandoans).
They seem to hold one of these about every 4 months or so – if you have the opportunity to buy a ticket, do it!

Wanna be social and also participate in making social change on a local level? Orlando SOUP allows you to do just that! For a donation of $ 10, you receive salad, bread and a bowl of vegan soup… all while listening to 4 different presentations, each vying for your vote to hopefully win a $ 500 – 800 grant towards their community project.
They allow about 4 questions to be asked after each presentation mainly to keep the event flowing. Loved how genuinely interested folks were and that they took the question/​answer portions seriously.
We also got to see a video presentation from ACE Day (last winning grant recipient of Orlando SOUP) on how they used the funds. So I like that there is some accountability and follow up with an update on progress.
If you have a cool idea on how to improve the local Orlando community, I highly recommend signing up to present at one of these dinners. Even if you don’t win the grant, you will open up so many individuals eyes and ears and may spark interest from attendees regardless.

5 stars because Orlando Soup is a great way help different community projects in Orlando. For a donation of $ 10 you receive bread, salad and a bowl of soup.
How it works, you listen to 4 different presentations about things happening in and around the Orlando area and how hey will use the funds for their projects if the win the final vote.
That evening we had the pleasure of listening to 4 great projects:
— Game changer: helping kids break out of their shells through gaming and educational curriculum
— the dinner party project: bringing people from Orlando from different backgrounds around the dinner table for great conversations
— source codeb46 foundation: building children self confidence through software coding and story telling
— explore theater and dance company: allowing community members to participate in the creative production process.
The presentations were not very long giving us the audience a chance to ask questions on what they will do with the donation.
It was very moving to see how every presenter was passionate about their project. After listening to the presentation we cast a vote on the project we think can benefit from the donation. Basically, a percentage of your $ 10.00 will go to the project that gets the most votes.
This was an overall very inspiring evening and would urge people of Orlando to attend Orlando Soup so they can find out what is going on in our community.

I really loved this event at East End Market. The event is inexpensive, making it accessible to many people and the majority of the ticket price goes to a great new idea. Events like Orlando Soup are the reason I love little big cities like O-​town. We recognize creative ideas to improve our community and fund them! It’s a really great way to learn of new things happening in the community and to get involved.
Provide your name at the door instead of a printed ticket (yay!), grab salad and bread, and find a seat at one of the long tables. The event encourages conversation between the folks at your table instead of only conversing with your friends.
We got to hear from the last Soup winners to see what they did with the money and celebrate their success. Then we heard presentations from the different presenters. The rules outlined a 4 minute presentation with no electronic media assistance. Then the crowd has the opportunity to ask questions and the presenters can answer four questions in four minutes.
After everyone has presented, vegan soup is served while the votes were tallied. Game Changer won this event and I cannot wait to come back next quarter to hear about the 25 kids who have fully funded nerd summer camp. :)
The market is a great venue for an event like this. Andi/​Yelp is a great sponsor and Tairi was a great host. Cannot wait to come back.

The concept of Soup in a nutshell is the soul of the community. For a donation of $ 10.00 you will receive soup with fresh ingredients, with salad, and a piece of bread. Prior to the soup being served I was able to have the wonderful opportunity to listen to four projects that are currently going on in the community by people who are passionate about what they are doing for a living, and who are making a difference in peoples lives.
The four projects of this particular evening were the following:
The Dinner Party Project– Where Orlandoans get together over an intimate dinner and have an actual conversation, a chance for genuine connection.
Game Changer– Giving children the chance to learn through games and gaming by focusing on an educational and social curriculum.
SourceCode B46 Foundation– Allowing children to build their confidence and fulfill their potential through software coding and storytelling.
Explore Theatre and Dance Company– Allowing people to participate in creative production via the arts and interpretive dance.
After the presentations were done, we voted for who we thought was the best project of the night. The favorite project of the evening will receive a donation provided by us essentially for the price we paid for attending Soup in the first place. The next Soup event will then have the project come back and give an update on the progression of their particular project.
What a great way to raise awareness and feel like your contributing to a greater cause. I love to be part of a community that is actually cultivating creativity and social justice at it’s finest. Soup and thought provoking change always a good idea.

I can’t say enough about how awesome this event it. I freakin’ love it! I also like it better now that there is only one emcee. It just flows better. The crowd asks great questions. I want to complain that some of the presentations are lackluster, but that’s what you get when you solicit project ideas from anyone in the community. And frankly, that’s why we vote on these things. I think that, while small, this event and the projects they spawn will do great things for our community!

This is what community is about and why I adore Orlando so much.
Ask yourself: What project could you do with $ 500 – 800 to make your community better? That is what these presenters answer while you sit back and decide where your donation for the evening should go! How cool?
That’s right. For a donation of $ 10, attendees receive soup, salad and bread and then choose where most of their donation goes! So this is not a profit maker for Orlando SOUP, the profits go to feeding everyone during the event and then to the ideas! Even the planning team for the event is donating their time. How cool?
What a beautiful concept. I am so happy I got to attend an Orlando SOUP night last evening. It was the 3^rd installment of the fabulous series that is based off the successful Detroit SOUP: a micro-​granting dinner celebrating and supporting creative community improvement projects for the city.
Before dinner is served, attendees will listen to four short community project proposals covering a range of topics such as art, urban agriculture, social justice, social entrepreneurship, education, technology, and more.
What is a city improvement project? We last night it consisted of:
— Buy Local Orlando: Food Edition — guide that promotes local farmers, local markets, etc. I like the idea of having a highly concentrated guide but in reality, I use Unilocal for this — but love the idea and that people want to push local love.
— Portable urban food forest (P.U.F.F.) — to assist with the fast traffic along Corrine Dr. in Audubon Park, it’s proven that visual distractions automatically make people drive slower. The idea was to fill the back of a trailer bed with a green sanctuary, compost bin, bird feeder, etc. Then, park it in a spot that would be visually appealing and a smart spot to help with a blind spot when exiting one of the shopping centers.
ACE Day (achieve a college education day) — To help assist with getting 500 5^th graders a chance to tour UCF as their field trip for an interactive day of fun with students, faculty, and campus life. Currently, the higher education trips are non-​existent and they go to the local prison during their «field trip» to see where they shouldn’t end up. So sad.
Ride around the town: Fixit Orlando — With the new bike share program, this group would like to add a self-​repair bike station at lake eola.
It was so cool to see how everyone presented as they only had 4 minutes and were not allowed to use technology. Some had passionate stories, some had amazing creative visuals. Really inspiring overall.
During dinner, attendees cast a vote for their favorite project and, at the end of the night, the project that receives the most votes is funded by a % from each attendees’ donation. Winners will appear at future SOUP dinners to report their project’s progress.
I did appreciate hearing updates from the two previous Orlando SOUP winners. So happy to see so much positive, local, movements happening.
Props to everyone who organizes this, presents their ideas, and attends. Such a fabulous cause! Props.

Events like these make me glad I live in a big little town like Orlando. We’re big enough to have substantial stuff and enough manpower to get things done, but little enough that people still care to get things done.
Once again, Orlando SOUP made me enjoy a bowl of vegetarian (maybe vegan?) soup, and I’m a meatatarian by nature. As simple as their salads are, they’re always fresh and tasty, and who can say no to a seedy (in a good way) roll from Old Hearth Bread Co.
Even though they said they were offering fewer tickets this time, the room still seemed packed. It was great to hear about what the last SOUP winner had done with their grant. Unfortunately, nothing this round really caught my attention. The LED gimmick was cute, but I really didn’t understand what they were for until I actually had to straight up ask the presenters.
But it’s still great to see the community coming together to support each other. I’ll keep going to these quarterly events as long as they keep having them!

Fine example of how there are vibrant and caring people in Orlando that want to make this city even better.
I had the good fortune (thanks to Unilocal) to have gone to hear presentations on four proposed projects that Orlando SOUP will help fund. Each of the four teams presenting had passion about their project and how it was going to make Orlando better. I can’t wait to go back to the next SOUP to see what the new ideas will be.
Oh, and yeah, you get a nice light meal out of it. All for a good cause. All to make our city a better place to call home.

Orlando SOUP is a new concept here in Orlando that helps the people of this great city connect! I attended the meeting yesterday and had a blast! Pay 10 dollars for a soup, salad, and bread and listen to amazing ideas of how to improve our great city through art and more! Best part is that a huge percentage of the money for your ticket goes toward the winning presenter! What a better way to help Orlando grow!!! Thank you to all who put these events on! I have a better appreciation of Orlando, the people who live here, and the amount of growth this city has to offer!!!

If you get a chance to attend an Orlando Soup event, I highly recommend it. Events are held quarterly at the East End Market, and four ideas by local Orlandoans are presented. These ideas may benefit the community in some manner or help push the artistic expression in Orlando into the spotlight. Attendees anonymously vote for which idea they want to receive a micro grant.
While listening to these ideas and chatting with members of your community, you get to eat delicious soup made by the talented team behind East End Market and the Slow Food movement.
It’s a wonderful way to spend a few hours gathered with great minds in the community and a fulfilling way to spend $ 10.

What a great event! Local artists presenting great ideas, local foodies working together to make dinner, and local ambassadors bringing it all together! And at the end of the night, a fantastic community-​focused idea received funding for follow-​through. I can’t wait for the next SOUP event!

I attended the first-​ever Orlando SOUP gathering and it was simply outstanding. Though I must admit, I did not actually partake in eating the soup, everyone around me had great things to say. There were fun people to meet and engage with in a community-​style way and I was able to make great connections easily and quickly.
The whole purpose of a SOUP event is to connect local community ideas with the money they need to fund their project. Each person pays a nominal entry fee then most of the proceeds goes to one of four projects pitched that night. This time there was a project about a coffee conference, one for an inflatable classroom, one for a vending machine that doles out art, then the winner was around an idea for eco-​graffiti.
All in all the night was spectacular… having Unilocal there brought a great dynamic to the event and Ms. Tairi Perez was an outstanding host. Lots of good people, great food, local products, and a laid back atmosphere. I will certainly be a regular at these going forward!