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Resource Report 4 - Souper Sunday · Resource Report

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Hello and welcome to Resource Report where we share with you important information about
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local nonprofits and resource organizations that support the community we share produced
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by Pathways to Agency.
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I am your host Rainmaker.
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Today's show features Chris Hyde, creator of Super Sunday, cooking soup in his home
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kitchen in an Eastside Olympia neighborhood, giving it away for free.
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Here's Chris.
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I'm here with Chris Hyde in his kitchen, Super Sunday guy, and I want to say I've seen a
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lot of your, maybe all of them, I'm not sure, but a lot of your news articles.
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You've been on MSN, King Five, Como, and Thurston Talk, but there are still people who don't
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know you are here.
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I didn't even know you were here until a friend like texted me, oh hey, you might want to
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interview this guy, you know, and that was exciting.
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Here's something really exciting.
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Do you ever think that you would be doing this?
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No, no way.
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Until the day I had the idea.
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I didn't.
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It's one of those things that you wouldn't really think of ahead of time unless it happens
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to you maybe.
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So I've always been involved and I've got a garden and I love growing food and sharing
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it with neighbors, that kind of thing.
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I love cooking with people, but this seemed to take, and I also do some work just on the
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side with the homeless, some gathering clothes and needful things over the past several years,
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but this seems to have taken all of that and wrapped it up into this one really cool project
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that people are really responding to.
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So I get a lot of inspiration from the By Nothing group, the Upper East Side group,
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and just the kind of giving and receiving without an expectation of anything.
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And that group here is really good.
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People are really dedicated to it.
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It's a well-run group.
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And kind of how I got my start doing soup, I was cleaning up my freezer.
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I've got some housemates here and there's always, you know, kind of competition for
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room in the freezer and the fridge.
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And I had a bunch of soups from a few months before that were frozen and I put them on
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the By Nothing group.
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And people were really into it.
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You know, I never had any problem giving the soups away.
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And there was something about that that sort of sparked the idea of Super Sunday.
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Like, I could do this full-time and actually put effort into making soups that I'm giving
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away instead of just giving away ones that were taking up freezer space.
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This could be a thing.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Yeah, so you just mentioned about the open giving and receiving aspect.
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And I wanted to talk about that, like the concept of not just for certain demographics,
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but for everyone.
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People have an idea in their head of where they are at and think that that's for other
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people.
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I don't need that.
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That's such a good point.
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You know?
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And that's an interesting concept that it's strange.
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It shouldn't be so strange that people have a hard time thinking of something, you know,
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in that way that, oh, this could be for everyone.
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You know?
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Yeah.
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Like, the governor, Inslee, could come and have soup, for an example.
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Or Bill Gates.
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Right.
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He'd be as welcome as anybody else.
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Well, I'm thinking more like maybe we could teach him something about community.
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I think that's...
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I agree.
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And that's the whole thing.
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It's not...
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It's not just about community.
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Yeah.
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You know, some of those guys, maybe they've never really thought in terms of the sacredness
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of community and connecting with people.
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Deep healing.
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Deep healing and being open for like anyone.
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Yeah.
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You know?
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I'm certainly not...
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I've got a lot of issues with billionaires and people hoarding money and not behaving
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badly.
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But part of this concept in group is, I don't know, sort of beyond my normal thought.
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It's sort of like a higher ability to see humanity in people who maybe you're not thinking
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they have any humanity.
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Maybe it's stuck in there and, you know, they've just been caught up so much in making money
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and being in certain circles that...
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But I have hope for pretty much everybody that, you know, I do believe...
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Well, I always forget the word.
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People who kind of like the Christmas story, you know, kind of coming around to the idea
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that humanity is the focus and it's kind of my religion is trying to see the humanity
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in people as much as possible.
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And there's something about this group that really brings out positive things in people.
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So to come full circle, I would love to have somebody come who is maybe questionable as
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long as they don't behave badly.
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You know, it's one thing I don't put up with is hateful rhetoric and divisive behavior.
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So...
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But that's a symptom of humanity, human beings and their flaws.
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And it can be a super poor person or it could be a super rich person.
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Toxic people just really need deep, deep, deep healing.
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I think so, yeah.
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I'm really a big advocate of people's bad behavior.
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Great majority...
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You know, we have free will, but the great majority of it is just unhealed people.
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People who have not addressed their trauma and instead of going inward, they go outward
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and blame everything around them.
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And every person around them for whatever their inadequacy is.
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But this is a rough world in a lot of ways.
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There are a lot of sharp edges and none of us come out of it without some injury.
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And I think the most important thing we can do is address that.
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And part of addressing it is to first just be able to recognize the humanity in others.
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And the more that you do that, you can recognize humanity in yourself.
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I have a discipline now of trying to give people the benefit of the doubt, which can
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be really hard.
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And of course, you have to be smart about it.
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You don't want to get in a dangerous situation or make yourself vulnerable to somebody who
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doesn't have your best interests at heart.
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But my life has gotten way better since I just generally give people a break in the
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benefit of the doubt.
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Because if you don't, you almost create a dynamic where the person is going to fall
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into that concept, if you know what I mean.
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So just trying to focus on people's humanity.
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And there's a sacredness about sharing food, making and sharing food with people.
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I call it the sacred circle of giving and receiving.
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And I'm a pretty cynical person, so it's hard for me to even say that.
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But it's an interesting thing for me to challenge my own cynicism and my shadow side and to
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be able to acknowledge really positive things.
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Because it's so easy to be a cynic in this world.
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And you put yourself in a difficult spot as far as seeing everything through the lens
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of cynicism and darkness and everything.
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Things terrible.
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And I couldn't do this if I hadn't been willing to challenge my cynicism and really deeply
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question it.
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So I'm in the process of writing, almost done actually, an illustrated children's cookbook
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that's going to feature the soups.
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And each of the soups has its own animal that represents the soup.
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And I've written a lot of stuff, fiction and all kinds of stuff.
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But in order to write a children's book, you can't really bring your cynicism to that.
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It's much more like you have to think like a kid and you want to treat them as children
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and not like little grownups or something.
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So it's been an interesting challenge for me to write this and think in terms of a childlike
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thought.
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And children aren't naturally cynics.
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So that's been a fun exercise for me to challenge my own snarkiness and my own dark side.
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This is a healing journey for you as well.
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It totally is.
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It's been like I never would have imagined being where I am now and this kind of just
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exploding.
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It's the first time in my life where I felt like I'm in exactly the right spot at exactly
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the right time.
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And I'm able to share it with others.
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And I wouldn't be anything without the group members because it's not about me.
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It's about the energy that is made, produced by this group where it's larger than the sum
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of its parts.
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You create this, I don't know how to describe it.
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I'm not a religious person.
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I've got my own kind of spiritual beliefs about things.
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But there is something about that connection with people in community doing something altruistic
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where it makes them just as happy to donate or make soup as it does for them to get it.
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And the more there's a free flow between those things, those dynamics, it's almost like it
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raises the energy level.
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I have a friend who is very much interested in moving back towards this sort of barter
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system of giving and receiving.
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I'm an avid advocate of bartering.
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And what you're doing reminds me very much of his philosophy and what he talks about.
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I think that that also is a healing structure if we can move away, perhaps, from money.
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You know?
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Yeah, the more we can do that, the better.
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And there's more community involvement.
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That was a big part of the message too when I kind of got that calling.
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I'll just call it a calling because it's the closest I can describe it.
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Part of it was that there should be absolutely no money involved, so no financial donations.
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Yeah, I noticed.
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I noticed that in the articles that you aren't receiving money, but you'll get gift cards
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for grocery stores.
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Or people will drop off food.
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And that way they're more connected to the process.
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That way it's not going to affect my finances.
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And it is getting back to just the idea of bartering.
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There is a connection there.
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It's not a tit for tat kind of bartering, but somebody gets soup for a couple of months
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and then they feel like, hey, I've got a little bit of extra money, so I'm going to buy a
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$25 gift card to give to Super Sunday.
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Or they bring over a bag of groceries or whatever it is.
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And I think part of the reason that maybe I got that message was to back off of the
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idea of dollar per dollar thinking.
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Dollar for whatever your time or effort is.
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It's got this monetary value.
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And it's kind of been a dehumanizing thing for our Western culture.
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I get it.
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I'm not naive about money and having to make money.
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That structure is there and it's not going to go away.
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But we can do things in our life, I think, to mitigate it.
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Bartering is one way.
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Super Sunday is another way.
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And I do need to mention also that there are a lot of groups who are doing similar things
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to what I'm doing.
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And even groups in Olympia.
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It's not, you know, there's a lot of, you know, everybody knows that homeless people
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and low income people need food more than other people do.
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You know, it's just such a common basic need.
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But it doesn't mean that other people should be outside the process.
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So since that's a real known, there are a lot of people who cater to that part of it.
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And I do too.
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I'll feed anybody.
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But there is something connective about not having those boundaries so that people who
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are not desperate can also enjoy soup and the community that the soup brings.
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You live literally two minutes from my house.
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I feel like that would be such a fabulous convenience some nights to just run over here
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and grab a couple soups for everybody.
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Absolutely.
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I just don't have the spoons to do anything for supper.
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But I mean, you know, it's that's just really helpful.
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Like, you know, like, yeah, even if even even though, you know, normally have the ability
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of like sometimes it's just you just need that break.
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Yeah, I do free grocery days twice a week.
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And I've learned a lot about people and their their needs.
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I want to say you shouldn't have to be starving to get fed.
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It shouldn't be like you're on death's door to get a meal.
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There is that kind of thinking here in the United States and Western civilization.
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But, you know, back up from that and think like, you know, everybody.
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There are people certainly who can afford their own food and have great diets and, you
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know, have enough money to be able to buy food.
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There are a great number of people who do not do that.
15:02
This is Resource Report on Chaos.
15:05
We will be right back to hear more from Chris Hyde of Super Sunday.
15:09
At Grubb, we believe that everyone has a right to good food.
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Grubb's mission is to grow good food for all people.
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At Grubb, we don't just grow good food.
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We also grow community.
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At Grubb School, we are a welcoming, non-judging, safe community that teaches life and hands-on
15:25
learning to high school students.
15:27
We help in the community learn about conflict resolution, and there's always people to
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talk to.
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Everyone has a place at Grubb's table.
15:34
For more information on Grubb's nonprofit work, check out our website at GoodGrubb.org.
15:40
Welcome back to Resource Report.
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You are listening to Chaos Community Radio and my interview with Chris Hyde of Super
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Sunday.
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So, I started a foundation.
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It was approved two weeks ago.
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So it's called the Food Source Foundation.
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And that came out of a specific need that I saw in giving groceries away for the last
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six months.
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That's more the grocery part of it.
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I see it as the soup is like breaking bread with neighbors and community and anybody can
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have it.
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And I'll give food to anybody either way, groceries or not.
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But the groceries are a little bit more for people who like you and a lot of people who
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have run out of their EBT allotment and...
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Can't get to the food bank when they're open.
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Can't get to the food bank when they're open.
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So the thing...
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There are a lot of different stories, but the one that came back again and again and
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again was this idea of somebody working full time and making $20 to $25 an hour and their
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income can't keep up with the soaring rent and cost of living.
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So I'm talking to people who 60, 70, even 80% of their total income goes to rent.
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And then they've got a car payment, maybe there's a kid involved.
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And by the beginning of the month when those bills are paid, it's always food that's the
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last thing that you end up buying for whatever reason.
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And they're either going without food, they're making too much money to be able to government
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benefits.
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And there's this whole working poor, this class of the working poor who are in a desperate
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situation as far as their food security goes.
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And like I said with my group, it's important to not leave anybody out.
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So anybody who's homeless or low income or whoever, I'll give them food and support them
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however I can.
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That people just don't know that there's this growing problem of food insecurity amongst
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people who are working full time.
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And a big part of the foundation was I wanted to shine a light on that.
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Because like I was saying before, we kind of all know that people who are homeless and
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low income, they're always in need of food.
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It's one of the things I do is I make these filling broths that are really popular with
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all kinds of stuff in them.
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Like beef bone, I do my own beef bone just about out.
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But I add a lot of different, you know, turmeric and black pepper and a whole host of things,
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ginger and there's a local mushroom company that I'm not supposed to mention their name,
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but they support me with really high quality mushroom powders of different kinds.
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Wow, nice.
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Yeah.
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So...
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All of that is so, so healing.
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It is, yeah.
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Food is medicine.
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Food is medicine, absolutely.
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And I got sick a couple of weeks ago right before I took my break and somebody had given
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me a bottle of fire cider.
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So I was taking that and then kind of I hadn't really even used my own broth, healing broth
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yet because I hadn't been sick for like a couple of years.
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But I did that for a couple of days and it really I think lowered my symptoms.
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And this is a flu that people like have for two weeks and it makes them miserable.
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But in eating right and like vitamin C and all this stuff, I really feel like it mitigated
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the effect of the flu symptoms.
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Absolutely, absolutely.
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So one thing I noticed was I hadn't seen anything anywhere about ingredient lists or finding
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out about like do you have gluten and dairy free?
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Do you mention anything like East African peanut soup?
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It definitely has a peanut allergy thing going on.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Like people have dietary restrictions like...
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Yeah.
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And I think it's important to point out that and I really hate this term beggars can't
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be choosers.
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Sure.
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Because people who are homeless or poor or low income, food insecure, they all have all
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the same intolerances as somebody who's can afford to pick and choose their diet.
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So I'm very careful about when I list a soup, I list all the ingredients.
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When I'm giving groceries away, I ask people if they have any allergies or food restrictions.
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They can either pick stuff that has or has not gluten or dairy or some people are allergic
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to black pepper and tomato products and all that kind of thing.
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So it's really important to be able to meet people where they are with a caveat that you
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can't please everybody all the time.
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You're going to make what you can make and at least you just put the information out
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there and they can find what they can have.
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Yeah.
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And a lot of people are vegans, which I think is great.
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I think probably plant-based diet is the healthiest diet you can possibly do.
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Although that's not what I eat necessarily all the time.
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I am a carnivore.
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But one of the things I do, I'll make a big batch of soup and I'll always keep six or
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eight soups at the end of it.
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And I put them in my freezer.
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So I've got what I call the soup library.
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So I've got a freezer full of soups that are vegan, vegetarian, meaty, seafoody, just depending
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on the soups in there.
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And that way if somebody is food insecure, they can just message me and maybe they're
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vegan or whatever their dietary restriction is.
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I usually have a frozen soup that can serve them.
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So like if your soup of the day that's sitting out on the porch for people to come and grab,
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is it something that they could have?
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They could message you and let me see what I've got in the soup library.
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And look, I've got this for you.
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That's perfect.
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That's as simple as that.
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That's fabulous.
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Yeah.
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And that's come from months of experience and kind of trial and error.
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And I think it's important to be able to not have my own agenda food-wise.
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The part of my agenda that I am willing to have is as healthy a soup or food as I can
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make with the ingredients I have on hand.
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Because I'm a big advocate of whole foods, non-processed foods.
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So the soups I make are all from scratch and they're really good quality.
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They're really good quality and super healthy.
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And that's important in the food that I make.
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But I also realize that there are people who are really working a lot and working hard.
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And as far as food ingredients go, I have control over the food or the ingredients that
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I put in the soup.
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But when I'm giving away groceries, I try to keep it as healthy as possible.
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But it's important to recognize that if you're a single mom and you're hardworking, you
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can't necessarily take two hours to make a meal at night or during the day.
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So some convenience foods are maybe the only thing they're going to be able to eat.
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So I try to keep my own food dogma out of it and just realize that it's...
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I threw away some Cheez Whiz the other day because I just can't ethically feel like...
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Cheez Whiz is not food.
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It's not food.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Like I said, under the circumstances, you have to meet people where they're at.
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And I just try to keep it as healthy as possible.
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So I posted something yesterday on Super Sunday about just making like a handful of pinto
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beans with cilantro and a pinch full of salt.
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Those simple three ingredients.
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And how completely satisfying that can be and really flavorful.
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And then I added some fresh garlic to that and I was like, wow, it's over the moon tasty
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for these four ingredients.
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And most people are just used to foods that have dozens and dozens of ingredients in it.
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And your case buds are probably just, you know, like have been so over stimulated.
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I certainly relate to that.
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I've had a tendency for quite a very long time to season anything that has any kind
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of meat or fish with the same things.
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I have like, I'm not creative with food.
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This is my formula that works.
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I stick to it.
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And then I a few years ago, for the first time in my life had my very first real in
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the ground garden.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Every year is a different year with it.
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But three years ago, I started I'm so proud of this.
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And I have my herb garden.
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I had parsley that grew so huge.
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Sage and rosemary and thyme and all the things.
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And I started seasoning with fresh herbs from my garden.
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So healing.
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Yeah.
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People who are eating, you know, salads all the time or whatever, they just haven't had
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the experience.
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The vegetables that they eat, they do eat generally, you know, like the tomato that's
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going to be on top of the Big Mac is going to be almost flavorless.
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With like no nutrition in it.
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Right.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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And that's the big issue about nutrients in foods goes directly into the conversation
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about agriculture and how we grow and use the land and all that.
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If your ground is depleted of nutrients, what do you think is going to happen to the vegetables
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growing out of it?
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Right.
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And that's a big issue.
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Where do you get all the food that you are using for your soups?
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I read something about you have your own garden.
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I do.
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I've had a garden for almost 20 years and I've got more garden space than I can handle
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these days.
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So one of the things I'd like to do is get a couple of people who will learn about gardening
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and help me, you know, be able to get the most I can.
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More gardening space than you can use.
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Is that what I heard you say?
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Yes.
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I'm having trouble understanding this concept of having more garden than you can use.
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I don't.
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Help me.
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It's a matter of time.
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I mean, imagine if you had a two-acre garden, you know, you're not having enough time to
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make you seven.
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Yeah.
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Well, there we go.
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That was the only reason.
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I know.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I'm following you.
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So we have a front garden.
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It used to be grass out there.
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I saw that kale or chard coming up.
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I saw kale.
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Yeah.
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The Los Amados kale is first time at permanent and it's provided so much kale.
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It's an entire four by 10 foot bed and since the spring, well, I guess more like June,
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it really started growing and they look like palm trees kind of because you cut the Los
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Amados from the side of the plant and it keeps on growing and growing.
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So I've gotten June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January, five,
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six, seven, almost eight months worth of consistent kale and that's great.
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So I started in 2010.
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I decided to dig up all the grass and put in garden beds in the front and that did a
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couple of really interesting things.
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One was that I was out in front a lot so I met my neighbors in a way that I had never
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met them before.
28:38
Unless you walk around a lot and kind of meet people out and about, it's easy to not really
28:43
have contact with your neighbors.
28:46
So that kind of brought me out in front and then people will ask me questions about gardening
28:52
and it really did kind of initiate a certain community connection.
28:58
And it's also really convenient for me to just walk out the front door and be able to
29:02
get vegetables to use for soups or for myself or whatever.
29:16
You are listening to KAOS 89.3 FM Olympia.
29:22
After some brief messages, we will be back for another half hour of resource report and
29:27
Chris Hyde of Super Sunday.
29:29
Support for KAOS provided by the Olympia Food Co-op, a member owned natural foods grocer
29:35
where everyone is welcome.
29:37
The Co-op has two locations, on the west side at the corner of Rogers and Bowman and on
29:42
the east side at 3111 Pacific Avenue.
29:45
On the web at OlympiaFood.coop.
29:47
Ring, ring.
29:49
This is Bird from Criminal Hygiene and you're listening to KAOS 89.3 FM Olympia.
29:57
And we are back on resource report.
29:59
I am your host Rainmaker and here is more from Chris Hyde of Super Sunday.
30:06
Probably my favorite thing is when I see a family go by with a kid or two and the kids
30:19
are fascinated and the parents start to explain like the origin of food.
30:24
This is where you know the stuff you've been eating, this is where it starts.
30:29
It actually grows out of the ground and there are a lot of little kids who don't know that.
30:33
Yeah, all the apples came from the grocery store.
30:37
Exactly, yeah.
30:39
So that's a great thing.
30:40
I think it's one of the best things you can do.
30:41
I've never had kids of my own but so who am I to give advice to but I've seen the way
30:47
the kids react to gardens and gardening and the growing process and how it really brings
30:53
something out in them and it's just a great education and healthy and there's everything
30:58
good about it.
30:59
Yeah, my youngest was at Lincoln Options Elementary for a little while and they have a big garden
31:07
there and all the students, all the parents, everybody volunteers in the Lincoln School
31:15
Community and not everybody but like you can, that's a thing you can do is volunteer to
31:21
help the Lincoln Community Garden.
31:25
So it's like that's the same thing, it's like the kids are learning and they're seeing
31:29
how everything's growing.
31:30
Yeah.
31:31
So cool.
31:32
Yeah.
31:33
It is.
31:34
There's a community garden in this neighborhood.
31:35
There is, yeah.
31:36
Yeah, it's like on the other side of your block kind of.
31:40
There's a church back there and I'm not a huge church person but they really do good
31:46
things.
31:47
Is that, that's their community garden?
31:49
Yeah.
31:50
Oh, okay.
31:51
But yeah, they're good.
31:52
They're really altruistic and so they have a community garden that you can be part of.
31:57
They plant a lot of fruit trees and open to suggestions from the community about that
32:01
kind of thing.
32:02
Have you participated in that community garden?
32:04
Have you gotten any donations of vegetables from there?
32:07
No, on and off from people.
32:09
I'm always so busy with my own garden.
32:14
Yeah.
32:19
How do you develop your recipes?
32:21
Do you have any old family heirloom recipes?
32:26
Not exactly.
32:27
I really, most of the recipes I've done have been based in like the Loosewood cookbook
32:35
but then I'll go to the internet and go to all recipes or just poke around and see the
32:42
different things that people are using, the variations on the recipes.
32:48
So recipes are like these kind of living things that I'll figure out.
32:55
Like recently it's been how important vinegar is in soups.
32:59
Really?
33:00
Yeah.
33:01
Tell me about that.
33:02
It's an acid, so there's that book about salt, acid, fat.
33:08
There are four things.
33:09
I'm liking on the fourth one.
33:11
But yeah, the soup is really improved with that level of acid.
33:18
You don't really taste it as vinegar but it can really improve the complexity and overall
33:23
taste of the soup.
33:24
One of the things I've learned over the past few months in addition to my soup making is
33:31
to add an acid which would be like a vinegar of some kind.
33:36
I made a lentil, a vegan lentil soup a few months ago and I did everything right.
33:43
A lot of what I do is I like to saute vegetables to caramelize them before I add them to the
33:48
soup and that really develops the taste profile.
33:52
It's just more sugar complex.
33:53
Yeah, I read about that in an article.
33:55
I was like that's interesting and I think I might start trying that.
33:59
It takes longer but it's definitely worth it.
34:02
So I made this soup and it just was missing something.
34:09
I had a friend who had recently told me trying to add vinegar to soups to sort of change
34:15
the flavor.
34:16
So I added half a cup of vinegar, apple cider vinegar and it completely changed the soup.
34:22
It was delicious.
34:24
The taste was much more complex and much more interesting and not kind of boring.
34:30
People have done that for hundreds or thousands of years probably but I just wasn't aware
34:35
of it until a few months ago and that's really improved the quality of the soups I think.
34:40
And the healing aspect, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, any kind of vinegar is good
34:48
for the system.
34:50
Absolutely.
34:52
The book Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat by Salman Nostrad is a really great book.
34:59
Salman by S-A-M-I-N Nostrad.
35:03
N-O-S-R-A-T.
35:05
Yeah, that's a great book.
35:09
It's a little bit sciencey sometimes but certainly worth the read because it talks about food
35:15
intelligently and the balance of acid, salt, fat and peppers, heat, that kind of thing.
35:21
Thanks.
35:22
Cool.
35:23
So how are you doing with your nonprofit or is that the foundation that you had mentioned?
35:28
That's the foundation.
35:29
Okay.
35:30
It's just brand, it's making new.
35:32
So the cool thing is I have a really great enthusiastic team of group members who all
35:39
have specific skills that are going to lend themselves to having a strong foundation for
35:45
the foundation.
35:46
You know, the operations part of it.
35:49
So that's not this what you're doing in the kitchen with the free soups.
35:53
Is that something, how are they related or separate?
35:58
So the food source foundation is going to be an umbrella group that will support other
36:04
groups.
36:05
So Super Sunday will be under the umbrella of the food source foundation.
36:11
I'm still working out the legalities of how I can contribute to other groups if they're
36:15
not, if they don't have the nonprofit status.
36:18
I think I could get food stuffs, but like donating money to them to buy food, you know,
36:27
those are the things that we're going to be working out in the next couple of months.
36:31
But it's basically going to be an umbrella organization that is going to address food
36:36
insecurity in the greater Olympia area in any way we can.
36:40
Yeah, so it's really exciting.
36:42
I've got four grant writers.
36:44
Yeah, I'm a big advocate of networking.
36:49
Part of the food source foundation.
36:50
I think there are several groups who are trying to feed people that probably don't talk to
36:57
one another.
36:58
Not for a bad reason, but just because they're so busy doing what they're doing.
37:03
So that networking and I'm working on communicate with a website designer on a portal where
37:12
it will have like all the different groups who are trying to feed people in the greater
37:18
Olympia area where they can check in and see where the gaps are and communicate easily
37:23
with one another.
37:24
I love that.
37:25
Yeah, like a food resource hub.
37:28
Exactly.
37:29
That's fabulous.
37:30
I love that concept.
37:32
Yeah.
37:33
So the food source foundation, the mission statement is to address the growing problem
37:40
of food insecurity in the greater Olympia area.
37:43
So I left it vague because I knew we were going to grow into the situation.
37:47
You can't know everything ahead of time.
37:50
You have to do it and come up with, you know, roadblocks and figure the roadblocks out,
37:55
see where there's a need where maybe you didn't imagine there was going to be a need.
38:00
Like our food bank is a great food bank, but it's only open twice a week, I believe.
38:08
And the lines are intimidating to a lot of people.
38:11
Or if you're working full time, you can't necessarily take two or three hours off during
38:16
the middle of the day to go get food because you're food insecure.
38:20
So I see the food source foundation as filling some of the gaps that are there.
38:27
You know, there are a lot of people with, you know, all the goodwill in the world trying
38:33
to do, trying to feed people.
38:36
And it's, you know, I would never criticize anybody, but nobody can do it all.
38:40
But if we work together, we can have a really strong web to be able to support our community
38:47
members with being able to eat healthy food on a regular basis.
38:51
Absolutely.
38:52
How do people on your Facebook page order soups?
39:00
So the process that I've come to, and again, it's always in flux.
39:06
If I think of a new idea or learn something new or get feedback, I'm always willing to
39:12
shift it a little bit.
39:14
But basically what I do is I'll make a food during the day.
39:16
I'm doing Tuesdays and Sundays now.
39:20
And this time of year when it gets dark so early, I'll have a soup ready at four o'clock.
39:26
I'll put a message out on my Facebook group, Super Sunday Facebook group, which now has
39:33
like 3.5 thousand members.
39:35
So it's really, really grown.
39:37
But most of those are like either out of state or, you know, they're not just in Olympia,
39:42
Washington.
39:43
So I don't get like 500.
39:44
But I'll put that a food, that soup is ready at four o'clock and what kind of soup it is
39:52
with ingredients.
39:53
I'll put a request window, which is usually like four to five thirty.
39:58
And then people can request and I'll approve their request and put soup out for them to
40:04
pick up in the front.
40:06
So people just like comment post?
40:08
Yes.
40:09
Okay.
40:10
And for me, I've only got so much time and I really need to have an economy of time and
40:17
movement and effort.
40:19
So that's what works best for me.
40:23
During the week, I'll often have contributions of these kind of come through the food bank
40:31
of Starbucks and other value added meals, things that you could just eat donated usually
40:37
on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
40:40
Or if I get a contribution of like, you know, 100 pounds of potatoes and I can't go through
40:45
all of them, I'll put a note out that they're on my front porch and come by when you can.
40:52
Just kind of a, you know, stop in when you can kind of situation as opposed to making
40:59
requests all the time.
41:01
So one of the things I have had to pay attention to is when I was first doing this, I was doing
41:06
it six days a week, seven days a week usually because I just had so much raw energy for
41:12
it for whatever reason.
41:13
You're excited.
41:14
Yeah, yeah.
41:15
And I still am and I get a huge amount of feedback and energy from the group.
41:20
But what's more realistic in my life now is having to make some parameters so that I'm
41:27
not overextended because I can't feed everybody.
41:33
And that's another reason I'm trying to proliferate the Super Sunday group is, you know, the more
41:37
that we have out there, the more that we'll all be able to share in, you know, the work
41:46
and to ultimately feed more people.
41:49
So do you have to put up a comment request for soup to get soup or can you like, oh,
41:57
oh, you see the post.
41:58
Oh, he's got soup out and just like go and find soup.
42:02
How does that work?
42:03
No, I need to people need to just respond to the request.
42:08
So it's important that you put a request out.
42:13
Yeah.
42:14
Yeah.
42:15
Okay.
42:16
It's the way that's been working for me.
42:18
Otherwise, you know, all the soup is going to be gone quickly when people come over to
42:24
pick it up.
42:26
People maybe can't get off of work until five thirty or whatever.
42:30
So I have to be pretty focused on having people, you know, respond to me and I'll make a request
42:40
and then they'll make a request after I put the post out and then I'll say, okay, your
42:45
soup is going to be out there in five minutes.
42:47
So you keep the soup inside and then you look at the requests and then you make the soup
42:54
and you put the names and stick them out.
42:56
Yeah.
42:57
And then you just like just keep doing that as requests come in.
43:00
Yeah.
43:01
I'll usually make the soup and put it in cardboard containers.
43:05
You know, the soup containers first before I make the post and then I'll just have, you
43:09
know, like 20 to 30 portions of soup.
43:12
Oh yeah.
43:13
And whatever's left over goes in the soup library.
43:16
Yes.
43:17
Sweet.
43:18
Okay.
43:19
There are different ways of distribution.
43:21
The people who are doing the burrito, Super Sunday Burrito Edition, they're out there
43:26
giving burritos away in person.
43:27
Okay.
43:28
Which is something that I would love to be able to do, but just the amount of time that
43:34
I have I can't really be out kind of schmoozing with people.
43:38
Yeah.
43:39
You've got to be in here cooking.
43:40
Yeah.
43:41
Yeah.
43:42
And there's a lot going on.
43:44
Sometimes I'll have, you know, like all four burners on the stove and a crock pot going
43:49
and I really have to pay attention so I don't burn stuff or whatever.
43:54
And then when everything is done, I have to have a certain amount of time to do the distribution
43:58
process.
43:59
You know, take the picture of the soup and take a picture of the ingredients.
44:02
Yeah.
44:03
There's a lot.
44:04
Maintaining the social media.
44:05
Yeah.
44:06
And then at the end of the day, I've got like a mountain of dishes I have to do and that's,
44:10
you know, here's another half hour.
44:12
And then when I get off, I usually try to stop everything like by six o'clock.
44:17
And then I start working on messages and emails and working on documents to support the group
44:24
and doing the foundational stuff.
44:26
Yeah.
44:27
And fortunately, you know, I love that stuff.
44:30
I love every aspect of what I'm doing here with the group and the foundation and it just
44:37
all feels right to me and energizing.
44:41
So I'm certainly not complaining, but it does take a lot of time and a lot of bandwidth.
44:46
I've got my fifth satellite Super Sunday group that started yesterday in Simi, California.
44:53
Oh, I saw that Facebook post.
44:55
Yeah.
44:56
And that's just really every time there's a new Super Sunday group that, I don't know,
45:01
it does something to me.
45:02
It just makes me really happy.
45:11
I'm Rainmaker and you have been listening to my interview on Resource Report with Chris
45:16
Hyde of Super Sunday.
45:18
After a brief message, we will be right back.
45:20
So don't touch that dial.
45:27
You might have noticed it's getting tougher out there.
45:30
More people doing more things they oughtn't to be doing and more of us feeling the effects
45:34
of it.
45:35
Hi, I'm John Ford.
45:37
Every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m., right after Amy Goodman, I bring you Once More Into
45:41
the Breach where we discuss these problems with distinguished authors from around the
45:46
world as well as other local guests.
45:49
So if you don't like it and you want to know more about it, tune in.
45:54
Wednesday mornings, 10 a.m., right after Democracy Now, for Once More Into the Breach, right
45:59
here on KAOS 89.3 FM or chaosradio.org.
46:06
We can't fix everything, but we'll sure as hell try.
46:09
I am American.
46:12
Protecting our American dream by any means necessary.
46:15
United we stand.
46:18
Making America great again.
46:25
And we are back.
46:26
Thanks for listening to Resource Report.
46:29
Now we will finish up the conversation with Chris Hyde of Super Sunday.
46:34
Tell me about other people starting chapters in their communities.
46:42
Like how many?
46:43
What is the process?
46:46
So let me let me talk just a little bit about the groups.
46:49
So we've got five satellite groups now.
46:53
Super Sunday Aberdeen.
46:57
Super Sunday Poulsen, Montana.
47:01
Super Burrito, which is on the west side.
47:05
So I had an idea of doing burritos and somebody, a couple picked up on that idea and have been
47:10
doing them on Mondays and people are really loving that.
47:15
Super Sunday Simi, California.
47:17
I feel like there's one more that I'm forgetting maybe.
47:20
But we've got basically five groups.
47:22
Oh, and another one starting in downtown Olympia in the next couple of weeks.
47:26
So this is from the beginning when it really started to take off.
47:29
I realized that the efficacy of this would be much better.
47:34
You know, I can only serve so many people doing Super Sunday.
47:38
But if you've got one in every neighborhood.
47:41
There was a mention of teaching materials.
47:48
Yeah, and that's something I've been meaning to do for the last five or six months.
47:54
But my schedule is so busy, it's really hard to take time to have three or four hours to
47:59
write something out and rewrite it and edit it and that kind of thing.
48:03
So yes, I just recently finalized some teaching material that a friend of mine is going to,
48:11
Rudy is going to, he's doing kind of a master's in teaching.
48:15
So he's going to format it in a way that I'm, you know, I'm not great at that kind of thing.
48:20
I'm a good writer, I'm a strong writer, but formatting, you know, where you've got bullet
48:25
points and it's just simplified.
48:27
That's a really important part of the process.
48:29
But I did send that document to the first group, which started yesterday, the CME California
48:35
group and she was able to do everything just from that document.
48:40
Okay, so it was like a trial version.
48:43
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
48:44
The trial balloon.
48:45
Cool, man, you're branching out and getting started in all kinds of directions.
48:51
What if anybody anywhere wanted to open up a Super Sunday, what would they do?
48:58
Yeah, so I finally have this document together that I can send to people, which is just a
49:05
real basic outline of how to do it.
49:07
And it doesn't take long.
49:09
If you're good with Facebook, you know, it can take 15 minutes to set the group up, something
49:14
like that.
49:15
And I have the rules and the mission statement and all that kind of stuff that people can
49:20
copy and paste into it.
49:22
Okay.
49:23
And it's easy and I really encourage people to start small, but just start, you know,
49:29
I've got a new group downtown and I think he's going to do it like once a month to start
49:35
off.
49:36
And that's great.
49:37
You know, if you can feed 20 people once a month, that's 20 human beings who are getting
49:43
a warm, delicious meal and also getting the benefit of feeling like they're being noticed
49:49
and taken care of and acknowledged as human beings.
49:52
Absolutely.
49:53
And that's a really important part of it.
49:54
Yeah, and you said that guy was doing burritos, so it doesn't have to be soup.
49:59
Absolutely.
50:00
Yeah.
50:01
So it's not necessarily Super and it's not necessarily Sunday.
50:06
So it can be misleading.
50:09
But that name is caught on, so I make sure that whoever's doing it has Super Sunday in
50:15
the title so that you can do a book thing and come up with like five or 10 or in the
50:21
future hundreds of Super Sundays in their area.
50:25
That's the goal.
50:27
And it's part of what I'm going to do with the foundation is be able to have people who
50:31
can work on that side of it.
50:34
Because to do what I'm going to do is going to definitely take a village and then some.
50:40
And I'm really just over the moon at the number of people who have volunteered now.
50:43
I've got a volunteer list of like 25 people all with different skills who are eager to
50:49
start.
50:51
And one of the main things that we're looking for is, you know, I can't continue doing this
50:56
from at the level I want to do it from my home just because there, you know, there's
51:03
just so much space.
51:05
So we're looking for a place that has, you know, like a walk in, walk in refrigeration
51:14
and maybe a commercial kitchen and a place that we can distribute from.
51:18
So like a vacant restaurant.
51:21
Yes.
51:22
What do people expect when they come to pick up their soup?
51:30
How does that does that look like?
51:32
During summer, all the food is in.
51:36
And this summer I actually did solid food all summer instead of soup, which was fun
51:42
and grueling as it takes more time to make solid food portions that does soup.
51:48
So for the summer, I'll have a cooler out front with ice packs in it and like have a
51:54
limited pickup time just because I don't want food to be sitting out there.
51:59
That's how foodborne illnesses started.
52:01
So you're like, this is, you know, soup will be out from this time to this time.
52:07
Yeah.
52:08
And then at the end of that time, you bring it all in and put it in the soup library.
52:13
Kind of.
52:14
Yeah.
52:15
I'll leave stuff out there and people will pick it up.
52:16
And generally people will pick up everything.
52:19
Occasionally people don't pick up soup when requested and it really bums me out because
52:24
I've made, you know, put a lot of effort into it.
52:26
So I'm really careful about explaining like if you're going to pick up a soup, you really
52:30
need to pick it up because when I go out there and there's, you know, soup that's been sitting
52:34
overnight or whatever, that's kind of a bummer.
52:38
So you like if somebody had, so there's an order of soup with somebody's name on it.
52:43
Yeah.
52:44
So you'll just leave it there even past the pickup time.
52:47
Like this is the time that I've allotted.
52:49
Yeah.
52:50
Yeah.
52:51
And so you'll leave it there for them.
52:52
Yeah.
52:53
Okay.
52:54
And I often don't go out.
52:55
I mean, I'm really done at six o'clock.
52:57
I don't want to deal with any more soup, anything, you know.
53:00
At least, you know, that the process.
53:02
So I sometimes I'll check and sometimes I won't, but it's really the responsibility
53:07
of the person who's picking up the soup to, you know, I'm making free soup.
53:11
The least thing, least you can do is like actually show up when I make a request.
53:15
Sure.
53:16
Well, you never know what has happened, you know, why they didn't come.
53:19
No, it's true.
53:20
It's true.
53:21
And you have to, and I'm totally understanding of people who, you know, had their car ran
53:27
out of gas or something.
53:29
There are like a million reasons, but you kind of need to contact me and let me know
53:32
so I can save the soup.
53:34
Yeah.
53:35
Yeah.
53:36
It was funny early on, there was a guy who didn't pick soup up and I was kind of bummed
53:40
about it.
53:41
And then the next day, later on in the day, he was like, oh, I'm so sorry I didn't pick
53:45
up the soup, but my wife went into labor.
53:49
Oh my goodness.
53:50
And I'm like, dude, that is a really good excuse.
53:53
Like no problem there.
53:57
It's just if people are like, oh dude, I fell asleep or dude, I forgot about it, that kind
54:04
of thing.
54:05
Like that's, that doesn't go over well, but I mean, the whole purpose is to give people
54:11
food and to share in the community and the whole thing.
54:13
So I don't want to be a jerk about it.
54:16
Mutual accountability.
54:17
That's a good way to put it.
54:19
Yeah.
54:20
Yeah.
54:21
It's kind of a contract, an unspoken contract, and I wrote about this in the document that
54:28
I have for people who want to start their own groups, that there is kind of an unwritten
54:35
agreement that we sign into that we're going to treat each other with respect.
54:40
And I think I was writing in regards of, you know, it's important to treat people really
54:46
well to the best of your ability.
54:48
But there are times when people can be, their behavior is not good.
54:55
And I don't have to put up with somebody who's trying to bully me or troll me or any of that
54:59
stuff.
55:00
I don't.
55:01
I just unfriend them and ban them.
55:03
Earlier when we were talking about those things, I was thinking of the words, compassionate
55:10
boundaries.
55:11
Oh, good way to put it.
55:13
Yeah.
55:14
Exactly.
55:15
And I think that's kind of the modality that you use to facilitate this kind of community
55:22
healing.
55:23
It's like you've chosen the way of the soup.
55:27
The way of the soup.
55:30
Wow.
55:31
That's going to be my book.
55:34
It'll be popular amongst like progressives.
55:37
I can have a Zen thing.
55:42
The way of the soup.
55:43
I like that.
55:44
I like that.
55:45
I like that.
55:46
I like that.
55:47
That's a good way.
55:48
I hope that people will go to Facebook and look up Super Sunday Food for All.
55:57
That's the main group and anybody's willing to join, you know, anybody's welcome to join.
56:03
And the more people the better.
56:07
And I encourage people, we were talking a little bit earlier about accepting soup, even
56:13
though maybe you can feed yourself and you've got money or whatever, that's not the point
56:19
of the soup.
56:20
And when I was first doing it, one of the most difficult things was to get people to
56:23
show up who are employed and, you know, have money coming in and, you know, have enough
56:28
money to feed themselves because it wasn't about that necessarily.
56:31
It was about the community part and just the sort of the magic of the circle of giving
56:39
and receiving.
56:42
People have to receive, if I was doing what I was doing and people didn't pick up soup
56:45
or weren't interested, it would be awful, you know.
56:49
So there has to be that part to it.
56:52
So don't be shy, you know.
56:54
Join Request Soup.
56:56
Really, it's mostly, you know, for Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey and the greater Olympia area.
57:04
I do occasionally have people who come from Shelton or something.
57:07
Wow.
57:08
Yeah, which is cool.
57:09
They've actually made a trip for a couple of soups.
57:11
But, yeah, I'd say join.
57:16
Don't be shy about requesting soup.
57:19
One thing, we talked about the soup library.
57:24
So if you're a group member and you need a soup, just message me directly and I can take
57:33
a soup or two and leave it out for you in the Red Cooler out front.
57:37
And it can be for any reason for anybody, you know, long day at work or you're starting
57:42
to feel sick or you're depressed or whatever, it doesn't matter.
57:45
Or you just want soup.
57:47
It's for everybody and anybody.
57:49
Awesome.
57:50
Come for the soup, stay for the community.
57:56
I think I'm going to hire you for it.
57:58
A full home.
57:59
Yeah, you are.
58:00
Those are both great.
58:01
Well, thank you so much.
58:02
It's been a great interview.
58:03
Thank you so much.
58:04
I really enjoyed conversing with Chris Hyde about Super Sunday in his cozy home at 1718
58:22
Bigelow Avenue, Northeast.
58:25
Of course, he sent me home with some soups from the soup library.
58:28
We had lamb stew, roast beef and vegetable, spicy chili and some East African peanut and
58:34
tuna, which is apparently very popular.
58:38
Make sure you find him on Facebook, give him a like and some support.
58:42
Next time we will hear from Megan Carlisle of Wild Grief.
58:47
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58:51
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