A Hug in a Bowl personified

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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's Entrepreneur, where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: across Canada and deliver the news, trends, knowledge and opinions from entrepreneurs and business
[00:13] SPEAKER_02: influences across the country. Hello, I'm Mario Tonoguzi, managing editor of Canada's Entrepreneur.
[00:21] SPEAKER_02: Joining me today on Calgary's podcast is Sharon Hapton, who is founder and CEO of
[00:27] SPEAKER_02: Soup Sisters and Huggin' a Bowl Enterprises. Thanks for joining us today, Sharon.
[00:34] SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Mario. Thanks for having me. Okay, maybe explain both those entities and
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: what it is that you do. Well, I'll start with the first one and that is the Soup Sisters charity.
[00:49] SPEAKER_00: And that one I founded in 2009 with a suit making birthday party. I invited about 30 girlfriends
[00:56] SPEAKER_00: to a cooking school here in Calgary, where I'm from. And we made about 200 leaders of soup that
[01:02] SPEAKER_00: night for the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter, now known as Fear's Not Love. But that was like
[01:09] SPEAKER_00: something that they'd never seen in terms of a gesture. We delivered a massive amount of fresh soup
[01:15] SPEAKER_00: to the shelter for women and children fleeing family violence and domestic abuse. It was all
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: about the messaging and the care and that there's complete strangers in the community here for you.
[01:28] SPEAKER_00: So that's how that part started. And then over the years, we grew that concept to 27 cities across
[01:35] SPEAKER_00: the country. Well, yeah, we were operating community soup making events in 27 cities.
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: And the soup was going to women and children and youth in crisis. And then 2020 came. And
[01:51] SPEAKER_00: as with most businesses, charities, our model adapted and changed. And we started Canada's first ever
[02:02] SPEAKER_00: soup bank. And that kind of leads to the second part of your question in terms of our hug and a
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: bowl enterprises, which is fairly new, starting now actually where we're going into food services.
[02:16] SPEAKER_00: And the social enterprise piece is that fails to support the charity.
[02:23] SPEAKER_02: So the sales are taking place where? All over the country. So we've got
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: where registered with Cisco and GFS, which are, you know, two of I think North America's largest food distribution
[02:38] SPEAKER_00: companies. And we are making the soup at a production facility in Edmonton. And that's kind of what
[02:47] SPEAKER_00: started in 2020 because, you know, I'll always remember that on March 11th, 2020, you know, the pandemic
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: was declared official. And at that point, you know, we had provided what we call a hug and a bowl
[03:02] SPEAKER_00: to over four million people across the country through the community soup making events. And then
[03:07] SPEAKER_00: they came to a halt on March 11th. I was at an event here in Calgary and thought, oh my god, you
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: know, what happens now, you know, anything that was community just got down that day. And that's
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: when I made a phone call to a food distribution commercial production facility that I knew in Edmonton.
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: And I said, can you make the soup? And they were like, we can make it because I was obsessing,
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: of course, on how to maintain the giving that we had platformed for agencies all over the country.
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: And they started making soup for us in large kettle quantities, like 2600 pounds of flavor.
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: And my next, you know, hurdle was, you know, how do I get it delivered, you know, yesterday I
[03:56] SPEAKER_00: had volunteers delivering soup. And I'd love to share this story because it's huge for me and for
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: the transition of how we managed to stay in this giving mode. I called the president of what at the
[04:15] SPEAKER_00: time was Versa Code Logistics, a refrigerated trucking facility company. And they're now lineage.
[04:22] SPEAKER_00: I called them and I said, and it was, you know, COVID for him too. It was COVID for everybody.
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: We were all in, you know, disarray. And I said, you know, I can get the soup made and, you know,
[04:32] SPEAKER_00: large quantities, but how, you know, can you help me? I need to now get it delivered. And he got
[04:39] SPEAKER_00: back to me four days later. So, in 2020, lineage has pro bono been delivering soup right across
[04:47] SPEAKER_00: the country for soup sisters to agencies everywhere. Wow. Pretty incredible.
[04:53] SPEAKER_02: What, you know, maybe backtrack for a second. Sure.
[04:57] SPEAKER_02: Gotcha. You like into this whole thing. Like, like, you know, what was there something that sparked
[05:04] SPEAKER_00: your interest in doing this with what was it? Yeah, you know, it was sort of a few things that
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: culminated at the time that it was meant to culminate. One of them is that both my kids were leaving
[05:18] SPEAKER_00: for university. And I was going through what I call, you know, my giant nurture void. Well,
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: there's nothing more nurturing than the food. So yeah, right? Yeah, universal comfort food.
[05:29] SPEAKER_00: And I think at the same time, I had also been to a fundraiser for the Calgary women's emergency
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: shelter. And really, for the first time, understood that women and children fleet their home
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: was nothing, you know, not their pet, not their lipstick. Like, literally was nothing. And
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: that had a profound impact on me. And honestly, one day I was walking my dog one day, just me
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: and the dog and thinking as I did on these walks and about, you know, what I was going to become.
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: I was approaching 50. That was the birthday where I started it. And I realized that I had been a
[06:07] SPEAKER_00: suit maker all my life for family and friends. That's what I did. I delivered them soup. Sometimes
[06:12] SPEAKER_00: I just showed up and they were like, how did you know? And I'm like, I knew here I am. And I
[06:16] SPEAKER_00: realized it had the power to change their day. So all of these songs really came to me. And then I
[06:22] SPEAKER_00: had that birthday party that, you know, provided so much soup for the emergency shelter.
[06:28] SPEAKER_00: And it ended there. It was an incredible night. But it took off like crazy.
[06:33] SPEAKER_02: What did you mean? It took off. What do you mean by the power to change their day?
[06:38] SPEAKER_00: The gesture. I really mean the gesture so that when you show up to somebody and you say, you know,
[06:45] SPEAKER_00: I see you, I care, you know, and here's a bowl of nurturing and nourishing soup.
[06:52] SPEAKER_00: I honestly understood that it did have the power to change someone's day. And since then,
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: I've seen that over and over in other populations. I'm talking about I started this with friends
[07:03] SPEAKER_00: and family that delivery. But now, you know, I, you know, those four million bowls of soup have
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: gone to marginalized populations. People, people who don't, who we don't always look at when we walk
[07:14] SPEAKER_00: past them on the street. And it's very powerful. And I have to say, I've never seen such gratitude,
[07:23] SPEAKER_00: authentic gratitude as when that exchange happens. It's pretty incredible. And necessary.
[07:31] SPEAKER_02: You know, they need the nourishment. What do you think soup is, I guess such a powerful comfort
[07:38] SPEAKER_00: for people? You know, I think it's like, I think it's been that way for for hundreds of years.
[07:46] SPEAKER_00: And I think it starts with the family. It's really interesting to me how many people I come across
[07:52] SPEAKER_00: that have a soup story. Like I honestly, you know, one of my taglines is every good soup has a
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: story. I really believe that. But how many people go back into their memory of mom or grandma?
[08:04] SPEAKER_00: And I've seen that so many times with, with kids who are, who are on the street. Like they actually
[08:10] SPEAKER_00: thank us for something that they know has taken place in their life. They, they feel the connection,
[08:17] SPEAKER_00: they feel the repeat. They've been there. And now they're in this other place. And someone's
[08:21] SPEAKER_00: actually taking the time to give them something that meant something to them. You know, yeah, it's
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: the universal comfort food. There's no doubt in my mind. Do you have a favorite?
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, I do. There's a mushroom bean and barley soup that we produce. And it's actually,
[08:42] SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know who Bonnie Stern is. She's a lovely like a entorano and she's a chef
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: and she's a cookbook author. That recipe from one of her early heart smart cookbooks is the
[08:58] SPEAKER_00: one that I made over and over and over and over and delivered to people for so many years. And that
[09:04] SPEAKER_00: was the one where I had that epiphany. Like, you know, why isn't everybody delivering soup? You know,
[09:09] SPEAKER_00: why don't we just doing this? Yeah. You know, in a really grand large scale way. So how many
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: different types of soups do you guys made? Well, for the soup making events, we've got a repertoire
[09:23] SPEAKER_00: of about 40 different soups that we make. And you know, we've got cookbooks and our cookbooks
[09:28] SPEAKER_00: have very elaborate. We're not doing that. You know, we're making really party nourishing soups
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: for social service agencies. And there's about 40 different recipes that get used that way. But
[09:40] SPEAKER_00: for our soup bank, the ones that we're producing large scale, we've got seven different varieties
[09:46] SPEAKER_00: use is what they're called. And so for agencies that we're supporting, they any given month can
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: choose from probably about four different flavors each month. Yeah. How many soups, the servings of
[10:02] SPEAKER_02: soups would you think you distribute each year? I would say probably over a hundred thousand.
[10:12] SPEAKER_00: And what I love about it is that it's so intentional. So there's nothing random about
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: receiving an all-encompassing meal that way. And I think it's really important. I think we,
[10:26] SPEAKER_00: you know, we underestimate how difficult it can be for some people just to get out of bed in the
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: morning. And to be able to offer something that is just keep and serve and ready for your family
[10:39] SPEAKER_02: right now feels really, really monumental. Yeah. Now before starting up the enterprises, the
[10:47] SPEAKER_02: Hugg and the Bowl enterprise, it's a social enterprise. Like how was the soup sisters funded? And
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: how did you guys manage or operate? Well, you know, we are incredibly small administratively
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: for the size of what we do. And that's got a lot to it. So like with any charity, we rely on donations.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: But you know, I remember years ago when I launched soupsisters in Victoria, we had, you know,
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: cooking schools were our partner all over the country. And you know, so I remember she said,
[11:23] SPEAKER_00: and soupsisters is, you know, self-sustaining. I went, oh, yeah, that's right. We are. We're
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: simple and self-sustaining. So, and I say, as I say, like administratively, what we do is so simple
[11:43] SPEAKER_00: because we partner in all the right places to make this happen. And you know, we partner with
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: the corporate world. And you know, that makes a big difference. So for them, they get to have a
[11:59] SPEAKER_00: little piece of, you know, purpose meets profit. And it's a, it's a, it's a feel good all around
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: for everybody. So, you know, moving forward with our hug in a bowl, you know, when, when a
[12:14] SPEAKER_00: senior resident or a resident, when somebody buys our soup from the distribution, they'll know
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: that they're supporting the soup sisters agency where we're providing soup to so many people
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: who are, you know, needing that nourishment. Sorry, what year did you start all this? 2009.
[12:34] SPEAKER_02: 2000. Yeah. Okay. And, and you know, when you look back, like, like, it must be mind-boggling to
[12:42] SPEAKER_02: think back of, you know, when you first started to what you are now. It's, it is. It's mind-boggling.
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: And yet it's somehow along the way. It's like, we always knew what the next step was. There's
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: something so intuitive about building that way. And so it is mind-boggling. And it's like, I always
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: say my computer's my brain, because it's like, you know, if I need to look up something, I can find
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: it in my computer. It's not here anymore, you know? This is finite, right? Stuff falls off.
[13:13] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. Now, you said, you said the, the facilities in Edmonton?
[13:19] SPEAKER_02: Yes. Yeah. And what do you have there? Like, what's there? Like, how big is it?
[13:24] SPEAKER_00: We have, oh, you know, it's, we have a partnership there. That's what we have. So this is, this is a
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: commercial production facility that might make products, super sauces for big big chains,
[13:37] SPEAKER_00: like Tom's House of Pizza. But so what we've done is we are actually a wholesaler that doesn't mark
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: up for the social service industry. But, hug and a bull now is going to have a mark up that
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: shows us some profit that goes back to the charity. So we, so when I say that we run lean, we do. We've
[14:01] SPEAKER_00: never had our own commercial kitchen. We've always partnered. We've never had our, you know,
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: trucks to, we've partnered. We've just partnered with people in all the right places that,
[14:15] SPEAKER_00: that understood, understood the value of what we present. There's actually, in a lot of ways,
[14:21] SPEAKER_00: there's just nothing like it, you know, in terms of agencies and charities and food. I mean,
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: most stuff is very much like, you know, the basket of really great nursing things that people need,
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: but not the instant meal. And yet we have that, don't we? Like, we have, you know, we can make a
[14:39] SPEAKER_00: phone call and have it delivered. I mean, we've got that. Yeah. So how is it packaged? Oh, it's
[14:45] SPEAKER_00: packaged in 20 pound boxes, flash frozen. So it's frozen frozen solid. So when an agency receives it,
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: they thought they cut open a bag. There's five, four pound bags in every box and basically heat
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: and serve it. Mustard seed and Calgary, they serve our soup every single day for lunch. Wow.
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: Every single day. Yeah. That's a lot of people to go to. Oh, it is. And they know that they can't make
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: at the price that we can provide it for. Yeah. So, so basically, you know, as you said, you started
[15:20] SPEAKER_02: up looking at the, and women who had problems or had it. Yes. Yes. Crisis. Yes. Yes. So now it's
[15:32] SPEAKER_02: kind of vaulted to people that need food, right? Yeah. Because hunger is such an epidemic.
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, there's 8.7 million Canadians facing food insecurity. You know, one in four kids,
[15:46] SPEAKER_00: one in four kids are going to school hungry. So it started off as the, you know, the big giant nurture
[15:52] SPEAKER_00: 15 years ago, but it's become so important in food insecurity.
[15:59] SPEAKER_02: Okay. And can you maybe describe this to the range of places that that receive the soup? Yeah.
[16:07] SPEAKER_00: One of the most interesting to me in terms of me just understanding what's out there and what's
[16:14] SPEAKER_00: available and not really always knowing is so many agencies and centers for drug addiction are
[16:21] SPEAKER_00: using our soup. And what's so important about that is they can't start working with people
[16:26] SPEAKER_00: until they're nourished. That's the starting point. And, and you know, that kind of rings true
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: on so many levels. You can only begin to help people when they're properly nourished.
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: So that was a really big one. Kids, you know, youth in crisis,
[16:46] SPEAKER_00: 16 to 24 typically who were, you know, going from street culture into mainstream society,
[16:52] SPEAKER_00: another really important one. It's all so important. We're still supporting all the same
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: women's shelters all across the country. You know, everybody has very limited food budgets.
[17:05] SPEAKER_00: I mean, they really do all of these agencies do. Yeah.
[17:09] SPEAKER_02: What do you think to future lives for for you folks in starting up the the enterprise
[17:16] SPEAKER_02: the social enterprise and what's that going to mean? Yeah. We're all.
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's going to help us stay focused on who we are at the core. You know,
[17:27] SPEAKER_00: I think when the social enterprise and it's so new Mario, but when it reaches a point
[17:32] SPEAKER_00: that it's supporting the charity, what's so important about that is we can take our time and energy
[17:38] SPEAKER_00: and put it where we really, really want to. And that's in the people we serve as opposed to writing
[17:44] SPEAKER_00: all of these, you know, request the letters and, you know, thanking people all day long. It's
[17:51] SPEAKER_00: it's almost it's it's tough, you know, I mean, that doesn't happen in any other sector other
[17:57] SPEAKER_00: than the charitable sector where we actually get drawn away from our mandate to be thankful and to
[18:04] SPEAKER_00: be asking all the time. I'm hoping for this freedom. You know, where the same product, the same
[18:22] SPEAKER_00: food services, the very same suit that we give to people who are in who are food insecure. And
[18:31] SPEAKER_00: that's that's huge for me. It's the same suit. It's what you would put on your own table. That feels
[18:39] SPEAKER_02: incredibly important. Excellent. Well, thanks so much, Sharon, for joining us today. Thank you.
[18:45] SPEAKER_02: Thank you. Okay, that was Sharon Hapton, who is founder and CEO of Super Sisters
[18:52] SPEAKER_02: and Hug and the Bowl Enterprises. I'm Mario Toniguchi, managing editor of Canada's Entrepreneur.
[18:58] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today.