THEY’RE HERE!

We know you’re busy so we’ll keep this brief — but we had to let you know that we picked up our hats and T-shirts yesterday (from Bridgeport’s beautiful, woman-owned, dog-happy Liberation Press). They were designed by Sheila Sachs, from a drawing by Maja Lindall, and they are SO CUTE.

We will start shipping preorders today, but it’s not too late for you to get your head and torso swathed in soup for the holidays. Order by Wednesday (noonish) and you’ll get your hats and tees by Monday December 23.

Supplies are limited. To preorder now, go HERE.

We will also be selling them live, in person on MONDAY, DECEMBER 16 at the annual HIDEOUT HOLIDAY SALE, the city’s coziest craft fair. That’s Monday night from 6 to 9 pm at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia. Come by, have a beer, buy some hats — and more!

And of course we will be selling them on-site at Soup & Bread, starting WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8 (also at ye Hideout). All the info on the upcoming season can be found on our website, here. We’re still looking for cooks, so if you’re interested in joining us on the soup line, please get in touch at soupnbread10@gmail.com.

If you’re on this email list, you’re already familiar with the fundamentals of Soup & Bread: volunteer soup cooks, Publican Quality Bread, music, conviviality, pay-what-you-can donations to benefit local food pantries. I’ll spare you the patter, but will just add one note.

Earlier this month the Trump administration announced changes to SNAP (“Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”) eligibility requirements that will result in approximately 700,000 “able-bodied adults” between the ages of 18 and 49 losing access to food stamps;  This change is cruel, pointless, and punitive, shredding what’s left of our sad social safety net even further in the name of …. it’s not clear what, other than vicious grandstanding. What is clear is that in Illinois alone as many as 140,000 people could lose their benefits. As Sasha Abramsky notes in this Nation article, “Taking away these people’s food stamps will not increase their chances of finding employment, but it will increase the likelihood that they and their families go hungry.”

Hunger is both a big-picture, structural problem and a small-scale immediate need. While we work to move the social and political levers that may, slowly, address the former, we work on a weekly basis to meet the latter. Over the last 11 years, Soup & Bread has raised $90,000 for small neighborhood food pantries in Chicago and beyond. This year, we aim to crack the $100,000 mark, but we can only do it with your help. Our expenses are not much, but they are ongoing. If you’d like to support our efforts, and make it possible for us to not just funnel monies to organizations that directly serve hungry Chicagoans, but also continue to provide a space for joy, comfort, and community in the darkest nights of winter, please shop our store. (If you pick the “share the wealth” option, we’ll also donate a second hat to The Night Ministry’s youth shelter, The Crib, which is moving to the Hideout’s neighborhood this spring).

Hate hats? Have too many T-shirts already? You can also donate directly to Soup & Bread via the PayPal button on the left side of our website.

As ever, we thank you for your support and we can’t wait to see you in January!

Stay warm,

Soup & Bread

PS: Follow us on Instagram at @soupbreadchi. That’s also our Twitter handle, btw. And on Facebook we are Soup & Bread: Chicago.