Every Good Soup has a Story
Soup Sisters is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to providing comfort to women, children and youth through the making, sharing and donating of soup.
Founded in Calgary on March 3, 2009, Soup Sisters was the inspirational vision of Sharon Hapton. A soup maker for all of her life. It is through the making and delivering of nurturing and nourishing soup to local emergency shelters that Soup Sisters has become one of Canada’s premier national volunteer organizations, focused on supporting women and children escaping domestic violence, and youth in crisis
In the past thirteen years, Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers has grown to 27 cities across Canada and launched into the US. Each location is run by local volunteers in their own community.
That is the simplicity of Sharon’s vision: to give people a way to give back to their community by doing something tangible - getting into the kitchen, spending a night with friends, rolling up their sleeves and creating something heartwarming, heartfelt and with it a message of support to families in crisis.
Due to COVID-19 and physical distancing measures, events came to an abrupt stop in early March 2020. Sharon Hapton knew that "the soup must go on".
The organization was able to take swift action by switching to recipes previously developed for large kettle production with Kitchen Partners in Edmonton. Since the onset of Covid and with the support of VersaCold Refrigerated Transportation, Soup Sisters has since delivered over 200,000 lbs of fresh soup to 40 agencies country wide.
About the Founder
I am a soup maker. For most of my adult life, I have taken care of family and friends with soup. If someone was down or needed some extra care, I would show up at their door, most often unannounced and with soup. I knew that this simple gesture had the power to change their day and, in the process of making it, I was letting them know how much I cared.
The whole exchange – the soup-making, the visit, the comfort it provided and appreciation it returned – created a fulfilling cycle of giving.
Here was the recipe for Soup Sisters. All it took was for me to realize that I didn’t need to look beyond my truest self, that what I was looking for had always been inside me just waiting to be recognized.
After all, I am, and always have been, a soup maker. SHARON HAPTON is a successful Calgary-based business woman, mother of two, and the founder and CEO of Soup Sisters. In 2008-2009, over the course of the year leading up to her 50th birthday, Sharon was ruminating on how to turn her heartfelt belief in the healing power of homemade soup into an action plan to help women in crisis. These unrelenting thoughts were compounded by her new status as an empty nester when, in her words, “I found myself in the most giant nurture void of my life.” Sharon fine-tuned her ruminations into a full-blown operational plan and founded Soup Sisters, a grassroots organization that would engage thousands in a movement that has delivered over 3 million ‘Hugs in a Bowl to’ families in crisis. She has been recognized for her work regionally and nationally, selected as one of Chatelaine’s and CityTV’s Women of the Year, Global Television’s Woman of Vision, featured in Women of Influence Magazine, and chosen by YWCA - She Who Dares Honouring 150 Women through 150+ years. In 2016 Sharon received the Meritorious Service Medal, by the Governor General of Canada on behalf of the Queen for bringing honour to Canada through performing exceptional deeds.