Vancouver Soup: A tasty fundraiser

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:44 — 15.3MB)

The Segment:

• Selected excerpts from the evening, including each of the presentations.
• Interview with Vancouver Soup winner Wes Wong, STEM Mentoring Cafe.
• Interview with Kerrie O’Donnell, Director, Vancouver Soup.

Vancouver Soup is micro-crowdfunding with a meal and a game show. Or, as I described it to my Each For All colleagues, it’s a charity death match! I may have used a bit of hyperbole.

A $10 minimum donation gets you in the door for a dinner of soup, salad, and bread. You listen to four local groups pitch their project. You vote. The winning group takes all.

We discovered community magic when we covered the event.

The projects were small and very local. The kind of projects where the $700 to $1000 prize goes a long way. The presenters were deeply invested in their projects. The biggest surprise for me was how much the crowd wanted to be there. There were many interesting conversations before and during dinner. And dinner was very good, indeed.

Vancouver Soup is hosted at Groundswell with support from CCEC Credit Union. Thanks to CCEC all of the donations go to the winner. The food was provided by Potluck Cafe and Catering Society.

The Master of Ceremonies was Paola Qualizza, Managing Director, Groundswell.

The Presenters:

• Seeing Green: An Environmental Documentary Series
  https://www.facebook.com/Seeing-Green-An-Environmental-Documentary-Series-1704226799792350/
• STEM Mentoring Cafe
  http://opensciencenet.org/stem-cafe
• Centre B
• Urban Oasis
  https://vyfpc.wordpress.com/
  https://www.facebook.com/vyfoodpc

Vancouver Soup is currently held every two months. Links to their sites below.

Vancouver Soup

Website: http://vancouversoup.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vancouverSOUP
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vancouverSOUP/