SOUP TO TAKE HOME AND A HOT MEAL FOR SOMEONE LIVING ON THE STREET
On 7 and 8 November, Progetto Arca’s Zuppa della Bontà returns to seven cities. The Libera Terra soup packs help fund mobile kitchens that serve dinner on the street.
On the stall there are lentils and spelt, chickpeas with grains, and pearled spelt. Choose what you fancy putting in the pot, leave a donation of at least €5 and take a pack home. By the time you open it, it may already be dark. Around the hour when all you want to do is shut the door and get warm, it’s easy to see what Progetto Arca is collecting for.
The campaign supports people living on the street and helps the foundation’s mobile kitchens serve hot meals through the winter. The vans are fitted out to keep food hot until it’s served. The kitchen goes to the people who have nowhere to cook dinner.
Where did those lentils come from?
Libera Terra made this year’s soup packs. Its cooperatives work on land confiscated from the mafia, alongside other organic farmers in southern Italy. All three varieties are certified organic.
Usually you check how long the soup takes to cook or whether someone at home will complain about the chickpeas. This time there’s a reason to look at where it came from. Land taken back from the mafia can grow food and create jobs. The harvest arrives in the square in a pack that fits into your shopping bag and helps people facing winter on the streets.
When and where to find the stalls
Volunteers will be in Milan, Turin, Padua, Genoa, Rome, Naples and Bari on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November, from 10.30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Take the pack home to cook. The minimum donation is €5.
Progetto Arca’s 2025 social report records nine mobile kitchens in six cities. The campaign lasts a weekend. The vans keep working through the winter, when meals have to be prepared, kept hot and delivered to the people waiting for them.
“I was hungry and you gave me food” (Mt 25:35). Here the Gospel is as tangible as a hot dinner. The rest is down to the people who cook it, the people who bring it out to the streets, and whoever passes through the square and stops to help.
