This fundraiser benefits your cause and lets local restaurants in your area shine! Most restaurants, luncheonettes and even diners have a house specialty dessert and a soup de jour. Most will be happy to donate a couple of one and a few gallons of the other for a worthy cause and some free publicity!

Set a date for your fundraiser, and publicize it through flyers, pinups at schools and churches , and a radio spot if your town’s local station does free shout-outs for fundraising events.

Get some sort of entertainment lined up – music is always a great choice, if you have a local band or the school would like to provide entertainment. Set up plenty of tables, and get local businesses to donate sturdy disposable dishes and utensils, plus napkins. Have volunteers lined up to serve and clean up.

Set a price for the fundraiser – $5 per person with a family maximum of $20 is a good ballpark. Pans of cornbread can be baked up or trays of rolls begged from a local bakery to accompany the soup, and water, coffee and tea served to go with the meal. Also plan on big bowls of salad and two or three basic dressings. All you can eat soup, salad, bread and dessert makes for a nice dinner for all. This is a great fundraiser for late winter / early spring when it is still pretty cold.

Make sure that you showcase the different soups appropriately to give maximum credit to the donating restaurant. Don’t forget ethnic variations – sweet and sour from the Chinese food restaurant, goulash from the Hungarian mom and pop joint. Ask a local to bring their famous chili, and encourage members of your fundraising team to pitch in with their own special recipes.

If the restaurants and other participants give their permission, recipes for some of the soups could be gathered into a small cookbook for sale. The cookbooks can sell for $10 each, and add a nice extra bundle of cash to your efforts. You could even have a two part booklet and add the dessert recipes in as well.

Sell tickets to the event ahead of time, and take people’s money at the door as well.  Have a donation jar near the exit so those who bought tickets in advance have the opportunity to give a second time if they wish. Each member of the group should be responsible for selling a certain number of tickets; this will give you an idea of the minimum number of guests expected to attend.

If you sell out of soup, well and good (have a few gallons of basic chicken and rice or minestrone just in case) – if you don’t sell it all, have Styrofoam containers ready and package leftovers to take home at $2 a serving for lunch the next day.

This fundraiser can become a standing tradition if you so wish – every year you can even have a cook-off for best soup with a panel of judges to add to the fun! Don’t forget to thank everyone for coming and give credit to participating local businesses.