About |
About the Café
Since its creation in 2011, Stone Soup has been committed to breaking down social barriers like class, race, ability and age, in order to bring people together around cooking and eating to create a beloved community, increase equitable access to healthy food and build solidarity. The original founder of Stone Soup Café was Bernie Glassman who built the culture of the Café around Zen Peacemaker Tenets. Today, Stone Soup consists of three central programs: a Pay-What-You-Can Community Meal, a Community Store, and a Culinary Institute program. Beyond these, we offer cultural and community engagement events throughout the year such as volunteer opportunities, workshops, live music, public art displays, and festivals.
Mission
To create a community space where all are welcome to share nourishment, connection, and learning for body, mind, and spirit.
Vision
To nourish our community with healthy food, sustainable systems, responsive mutual aid programs, creativity, and a vibrant culture of belonging.
Values
RESPECT
COLLABORATION
CURIOSITY
CARE
How we co-create our mission, vision, and values:
We commit ourselves to the ongoing work of building relationships with members of our community, especially those exploited, oppressed, and marginalized.
We commit to ongoing education and dialog with our neighbors, collaborating with partner organizations, and engaging with social movements.
We commit to working together, learning from each other, and mending and course-correcting for any mistakes we make along the way.
We promote solidarity and challenge colonialism in all its forms.
Our Programs
Community Meal
The Community Meal at Stone Soup Café provides access through curbside and delivery service to delicious, nutritious, scratch-cooked, balanced meals every Saturday to any and all of our community members on a pay-what-you-can basis. We partner with myriad Franklin County farms and businesses to source and glean fresh, local, produce and ingredients for our meals. Reducing waste, strengthening regional food systems, and improving equitable access to healthy and high-quality food are some of our highest priorities.
Our menus cater to a variety of dietary needs and cultural cuisines with vegetarian, vegan, or meat selections. Everything is gluten-free, and there is always a vegan option.
In 2024, Stone Soup Café served approximately 600 meals every Saturday.
Everybody's Community Store
The Community Store at Stone Soup Café, is a curbside food pantry that was created at the prompting of our guests during the onset of the pandemic. Since 2020, it has grown steadily as food prices have increased and stayed inflated as Covid-era benefit supplements have ended.
Every Saturday, our Community Store provides between 80-110+ households with weekly access to groceries, produce, and personal care items at no charge. We use our previously mentioned network of local partners to source items. We are also
a member agency of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. Other pantry programs in Greenfield are closed during the weekend, so the Community Store Store at Stone Soup provides important access to supplemental groceries and food for people who work conventional Mon-Fri, 9-5 type schedules.
Culinary Institute
In 2022, Stone Soup created a Culinary Institute program (SSCI) with support from the State of Massachusetts. Stone Soup Culinary Institute strives to offer more equitable access to career training and economic opportunity to people seeking a new career path, especially those who are seeking employment after a period of incarceration or recovery from addiction. Applicants who are accepted into the 12-week program attend tuition-free and leave with a Food Handlers License, a ServSafe Certificate in Kitchen Management, job skills, practicum experience, and references for securing work in the vibrant and emerging food culture here in Franklin County.
In the spring of 2024, Stone Soup is partnering with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the State of MA to provide training at SSCI for a mixed cohort of students coming from the community and from people re-entering society within a year of incarceration.