The Daily Bread Soup Kitchen, a volunteer organization in Champaign, is planning extensive holiday programming for the local community. The organization is arranging events for the season of giving and providing food and resources for members of the community.
The Daily Bread Soup Kitchen has been a part of the Champaign-Urbana community for 14 years, providing about 400 meals a day, according to organizers. The organization is run entirely by volunteers and funded by donations.
“It’s a very generous community here that helps us,” said Ellen Harms, publicity coordinator of the kitchen. “We get all kinds of food donated from local restaurants, local businesses.”
Harms stressed how some may think all the guests of the soup kitchen are without a home or family, but it is a common misconception, as some guests just need a little assistance.
“There’s kind of a myth about the guests at the soup kitchen,” Harms said. “A lot of our guests have families. They’re not all homeless, they have homes, they have families, they have friends, so they have a place to go on the holidays.”
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Harms said the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen aims to provide not only food to its guests but also resources to help them in their day-to-day lives. Harms discussed the assistance committee, which helps guests obtain driver’s licenses and bus passes.
“I think we provide a place for guests to feel recognized,” Harms said. “They feel respected, they feel listened to.”
The kitchen is closed on Dec. 25 for Christmas Day, but that doesn’t deter their community outreach efforts during the season.
“We pretty much celebrate Christmas with our guests all of December,” Harms said. “We decorate, we have a Christmas tree.”
The star of the soup kitchen’s holiday programming is the 2023 Knapsack Project.
“Before COVID we did backpacks, and we had people donate backpacks and things to fill them up,” Harms said. “Because of COVID, we switched to knapsacks.”
The soup kitchen purchases several hundred knapsacks to distribute to guests and takes donations from the community. The knapsacks are filled with toiletries, warm winter clothes, treats and a small gift. The bags are then distributed throughout the community.
“Last year we gave out about 700 knapsacks, it’s always a big project,” Harms said. “We have a lot of families do it.”
The soup kitchen collected items for their knapsacks from Nov. 15 to Dec. 8., according to their website.
Harms said the soup kitchen is dedicated to helping residents within the community year-round.
“People who are hungry are being fed, and that’s our basic mission, to feed people,” Harms said. “I think all of us who work at the soup kitchen believe that people need to be treated with respect. We’re all citizens of this world that we live in.”
