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Daniya Khan

Professor Sarah Haak

ENGL 2089 Intermediate Composition

31 March 2022

Rescue.Transform.Share: La Soupe’s Mission to End Hunger in Cincinnati

On a warm sunny Saturday, after what seemed like an awfully long winter, I made my

way down the street to a cooking class I had excitedly signed up for. The shop, just two blocks

down from where I lived, was a place I had accidently discovered one day as I was exploring the

neighborhood I had recently moved into. On entering the venue, I was immediately impressed by

the aesthetically pleasing, yet functional arrangement of the room. As soon as one enters, they

see a large table in the center of the room, with neatly placed sets of cutting boards, knives,

juicers, and peelers, indicating peoples' 'workstations'. Towards the end of the room, there is a

wall of cooking essentials, with all kinds of spices, herbs and utensils either hanging off a

beautiful wire rack or hidden away in well organized, labelled drawers. Once everyone attending

the class had gathered, we were given a quick rundown of the day’s proceedings, and a small

verbal tour of the venue. Soon after, our coordinator Kristin, introduced herself and the

organization that had arranged this cooking class. La Soupe, is a non-profit organization that

operates as a soup kitchen to feed the poor, while also providing education about food nutrition,

battling food waste, and cooking a variety of meals with simple easy to access ingredients. This

became my chosen discourse community and I carried out research on it through some

interviews, experiencing a cooking class, and analyzing some of their texts and other artifacts.

Kristin who is a long-time member of La Soupe, as well as the current director of

culinary education there, talked a little about the organization, the team and what their overall
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mission is, after which, we all exchanged introductions. Our little cooking group consisted of

newcomers like myself, long term volunteers spending a sunny Saturday cooking and even

friends and big donors to La Soupe, all of whom had gathered to enjoy a cooking lesson while

testing our own skills in the kitchen. We began prepping for the meal we were going to make and

the best part about this was that we were given the creative freedom to come up with whatever

dish we wanted to, using the ingredients provided. What amazed me the most about this entire

experience was that throughout the cooking process, our group learnt something new. From the

nutritional value of fruits and vegetable peels, to how we can save food scraps and send them to

farms and animal sanctuaries as food for animals. The final products of our class were enjoyed

by all including the staff that was hard at work in the back area of the venue. It felt like everyone

left with a great sense of accomplishment, and a newfound appreciation for everyday food

resources, which we often take for granted.

According to linguist John Swales, a group may be considered a ‘discourse community’

if it meets certain criteria. The first and foremost is that “a DC has a broadly agreed set of goals”

(14), which La Soupe fulfills in their main mission statement of bridging the gap between food

waste and hunger. “Food and nutrition should be a basic human right for all, yet in today’s world

there are so many who suffer from hunger and do not know where their next meal will come

from” states Katrina as she informs our group about La Soupe’s core mission. Thus, an

overarching agreed upon goal for this community is to end hunger within the greater Cincinnati

area, especially among schools and children, but how they go about this mission is unique and

effective. I have been observing and experiencing events at La Soupe over the last few weeks

and through my research, I discovered how this community spreads awareness about food
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insecurities, provides meals to communities stricken with food related problems and uses

education as a means of solving deep rooted problems around hunger.

Thus, the target population for this community consists of people going through food

insecurities, living in food deserts, or just not having any knowledge of nutritional foods. Their

work focuses around providing them with consistent meals and then equipping them with the

tools and resources to access meals for themselves in the long run. However, this cannot happen,

without good coordination and communication between community members. Swales second

criteria states, “A DC has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members,” (14) which

is carried out among La Soupe members across various platforms. In an interview with partner

relations manager, Katy Nardolillo I learnt of the many team members that makeup La Soupe

and their different roles in communication. The members of this group are diverse as they have

to run a non-profit organization, as well as a “restaurant” of sorts. Some prominent higher rank

members of this group include Suzy Deyoung who is the director and founder of La Soupe,

Mimi Dyer, the board president, Dennis Kramer-wine, the chief operating officer, Daniel

Tonozzi development director, Emmy Schroder, director of food as medicine and Kristin St.

Clair, culinary education director. Under them are a whole set of managers, coordinators,

officers, chefs, and volunteers. Not to mention the countless restaurants, grocery stores and farms

that partner with La Soupe to help provide ingredients and manpower.

The main methods of communication for this discourse community are in-person meetings,

emails, and phone conversations. Katy states that since they are a relatively “small

organization/non-profit”, communication within the group often takes place in person as most

members are at the venue every day. Food donors, restaurants, grocery stores and then all the

receiving parties are often communicated through emails, phone conversations or scheduled in-
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person meetings. This is where Katy’s role as a partner relations manager comes in handy. She

states:

I am the partner relations manager at La Soupe, which means I am the contact person for

all the places we get food from and give food to. I make the schedule, talk with food-

insecure organizations about the food they are receiving, if they are receiving the right

thing, what they are looking for, etc. I maintain communication with all the groups that are

getting food so La Soupe can ensure that they are getting the right thing and we are serving

them in the best way possible. (Nardolillo)

This brings us to criteria three, in which Swales considers a discourse community to

possess, “participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback ”(14). Using

primarily face-to-face and email communication with members, La Soupe provides information

and feedback such as updates on events, scheduling, and volunteer information among many

other things. The fourth criteria which claims that “a DC utilizes or hence possesses one or more

genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims”(14), is met through La Soupe’s use of an

array of different genres for communication. Since we live in such a highly digitized era, now

more so due to the pandemic a lot of communication, advertisement and marketing takes place

online, through the La Soupe website (www.lasoupe.org ). The La Soupe websites hosts a variety

of informative posts, ranging from the founding of the organization to recipes they have

concocted over the years. Their website leads to an array of different channels of in group

communication as well as spreading awareness to individuals like you and I, who might want to

donate our time, resources, and money into helping this community. Other types of texts

produced by the community include flyers, handouts, and monthly newsletters, all of which are

also available online.

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Most of the flyer or handouts used by La Soupe are in collaboration, especially ones that

contain a multitude of information. For example, information about the nutritious value of

different foods will be presented a pamphlet, but it will also contain information on how to join

to community all of which is done in collaboration between the education coordinator, the

volunteer coordinator as well as the social media manager (see fig. 1). A lot of what is written in

text or published online by La Soupe enhances the message given by the team in person.

Fig. 1. Nourish flyer from la soupe.org, 10 March, 2022.

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Swales fifth criteria states that “In addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specific

lexis”.(15) A lot of the lexis used within the La Soupe community is based around food, but also

around food education, nutrition, and health. They have built various programs for their services

and volunteer work such as "Nourish the Nati" and “Cincinnati gives a Crock” and volunteers

are known as "Food Runners". Knowledge of spices, herbs, and certain types of dishes there are

considered the norm, but not really a requirement for all the members. However, the very lexis

around food becomes important when the team is education schools and under privileged

communities about food and nutrition. Even basic knowledge of using cooking utensils, stoves,

microwaves etc. is key to teaching these communities how to feed themselves. Lastly, a

discourse community must have “a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant

content and discoursal expertise” (15). One of the best parts about a non-profit discourse

community is that even though it has stable members as part of their more permanent team, there

is often open access to anyone who wants to join. “Volunteering is the best and easiest way to

become part of the community and long-term volunteering can also help in securing a more

permanent position at La Soupe, but we don’t distinguish between our “full” time members and

our volunteers” says Katy when discussing job opportunities and ways to become a member of

La Soupe.

There is however, a slight distinguishment between volunteers and full-time working staff at

La Soupe be it qualification differences or working hours, but as Katy mentions, volunteering

alone can close that gap and even allow people to take up more permanent positions in the team.

People wanting to join this group should start by researching them, but the best way to get to

know the community more is to experience it first-hand. Therefore, La Soupe recommends its

volunteering services for any and all newcomers or even people already associated with the
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community. On another visit to their venue, I happened to strike a conversation with one of the

team’s members Melissa Venzon, who was working the counter that day and she mentioned that

her own work for La Soupe was a product of regular volunteering. Melissa went on to say, “ I

volunteered a lot, got familiar with the group’s work, and showed a “drive” to continue the

community’s mission, so one day they offered me a full-time position at La Soupe, and I have

not looked back since then!!”

La Soupe offers various volunteer positions as assistance is needed in all areas of their

organization. However, volunteering is more of a long-term commitment and requires somewhat

of a process to go through before one can start working. Katy describes a typical day for staff

and volunteers at La Soupe, along the following lines:

La Soupe receives food in the morning and our dock crew weights and sorts through the

food. Some goes straight to the kitchen to be transformed, some goes directly back out to

share partners, and food that is not fit for human consumption goes to compost or pig

farmers. We always sort through the donated food in house, that way we are not sending

food to partners that is inedible…

Meanwhile, the kitchen and our volunteers get to work preparing food, making

soup, putting soup in quart containers to be donated, wrapping bread, and a multitude of

other tasks to make our organization work. We are a well-oiled machine! The dock crew

sorts the food and weighs it again before it goes to our share partners - who have specific

requests for what they receive (soupes, meals, produce, bread, etc). We use a volunteer

driver system called Food Rescue US, where we list our "food runs" and volunteers sign

up to take the food from place to place. (Nardolillo)

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Katy highlights one of the most important parts of La Soupe’s work, which is to “Rescue,

Transform and Share” meals with those who need it. I saw a great opportunity to get an essence

of this mission, by taking part in one of their Saturday "improv cooking" classes. The main point

of these classes is for people, especially those in the neighborhood and surrounding areas to

come, meet one another, learn more about La Soupe’s work, while engaging in a fun activity

together. I believe this was a great learning experience for me, not only in terms of getting a taste

(literally!) of what La Soupe is about, but also in terms of cooking and nutrition. Interestingly, it

was also a great opportunity for me and others to share personal knowledge about cooking

ingredients, food utilization and our own cooking styles. What I learnt from my firsthand

experience there, is what this discourse community wants to mimic in La Soupe’s many food

programs. According to an article in Forbes and in La Soupe’s founding story, founder Suzy

DeYoung, learnt that some Cincinnatians were unable to cook for themselves and their families

and didn’t even have the necessary appliances to cook (Robinson). DeYoung thus, made it her

life’s mission to help providing these people with necessary tools and then the raw material to

make their own meals.

As with any organization, this one also follows a set of rules and regulations that members,

and volunteers must adhere to when on the job. Rules that are required by staff and community

members often revolves around food safety and hygiene when dealing with foods. This is

obviously to ensure that only the best quality meals are being provided to the recipients. The La

Soupe community is always looking for ways to grow and become better, therefore they call on

people from the neighborhood or even other areas of Cincinnati, to come and join their mission.

And as with any discourse community, La Soupe too has faced many problems when

establishing themselves, as well on the way. Katy mentions a recent, quite common issue that
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their discourse community is currently facing, stating, “we just learned that our largest produce

donor, Castellini, is no longer a produce distributor. We are working with connections that we

have to make up for the produce deficit, but it was a huge loss (500,000 pounds of produce

donated from them in 2021)”. She goes on to say, “Previously, the covid pandemic caused many

of us to pivot our jobs, jumping into other positions and helping wherever we were needed”,

meaning that despite the various trials and tribulations they have had to face, they keep moving

forward and finding creative ways to help themselves and keep running the organization.

On a surface level, La Soupe may seem like any other non-profit organization, working

towards a mission to help those in need. However, it goes beyond that, by not only helping

people but also empowering many to help themselves. By providing meals made from all kinds

of foods and leftovers and then teaching younger individuals how to prepare such meals for

themselves, La Soupe is tackling the problem of hunger in accessible ways. The community and

its team members provide a safe and approachable space for anyone, by offering free meals to

those in need, while also selling delicious dishes to those who want to donate/contribute to their

mission. Through the various programs it offers, a major focus of this group is to educate adults

and children about food, nutrition, meal prep and making healthy meals all of which is carried

out by team members who share the same values and goals. Although this discourse community

relies heavily on word of mouth to spread awareness about themselves, it is effective method

among the communities, schools, and neighborhoods, who hear about them through places that

have benefitted from La Soupe or eager team members who want to help their local areas. This

discourse community showed me that not only can like-minded individuals unite and work for a

good cause, but also rally so many others to contribute and help in unique ways, making this

community one that keeps learning, growing, and improving.

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Works Cited

Robinson, Cheryl. “How Chef Suzy DeYoung Is Serving More Than 343,564 Meals to Families

in Need”. Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylrobinson/2019/05/15/suzy-

deyoung-la-soupe/?sh=7662a01a3b3e. Accessed 24 February, 2022.

La Soupe. La Soupe Incorporated, 2018. https://www.lasoupe.org/

Nardolillo, Katy. Interview. Conducted by Daniya Khan, 10 March, 2022.

St. Clair, Kristin. Informal Interview. Conducted by Daniya Khan. 5 March 2022.

Swales, John M. "Reflections on the concept of discourse community." ASp. la revue du

GERAS 69 (2016): 7-19.

Venzon, Melissa. Informal Interview. Conducted by Daniya Khan, 8 March 2022.