Soup’s On, Along With a Helping of Community
The East Hampton Clericus’s annual series of soup dinners begins Wednesday, offering a healthy helping of community, camaraderie, and volunteerism along with the good eats.
Dinner will consist of several types of soups provided by local restaurants, among them Nick and Toni’s, Townline BBQ, and La Fondita, all presided over by Joe Realmuto, plus bread and fruit donated by local bakeries and religious organizations and desserts contributed by residents attending the dinner. The dinners are free, and will take place on the second Wednesday of each month between January and March from 5 to 7 p.m. at Most Holy Trinity Church’s Parish Hall in East Hampton. Those who are interested in attending are asked to also consider spending a portion of their time volunteering to help serve the food either before or after they eat.
“The key word is community. Everyone comes from all walks of life. . . . It’s a wonderful, wonderful evening. Everybody just pitches in. People feel really good about it,” said Doreen Quaranto, a licensed clinical social worker and the director of outreach at Most Holy Trinity who coordinates the community soup dinners on behalf of the clericus.
The clericus, which comprises leaders from different faiths in the East Hampton area, began sponsoring the dinners late in 2009 after taking over a pilot program that an East Hampton Town committee started that March. According to the Very Rev. Denis Brunelle, who heads the East Hampton Clericus and leads St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, that is when the economic downturn and the town’s own financial difficulties prompted cutbacks in town social services that began to be felt by its residents.
“We thought that it was important because there was an important need,” Mr. Brunelle said. “Some of the senior citizens were making decisions like ‘Do I have medicine or do I have food?’ For some who live in their cars, it was a matter of having something warm to eat. We as the clericus . . . decided to band together. Each one of us does something to help make it possible.”
The Jewish Center of the Hamptons, for instance, provides the paper goods, and St. Luke’s typically provides centerpieces made of fruit. The soup dinners have been so successful, Ms. Quaranto said, that they were recognized among national “best practices in parish social ministry” by the nonprofit organization Catholic Charities U.S.A. in 2012.
The event draws support from outside the religious community, too. Teachers from the John M. Marshall Elementary School provide live music. And then, of course, there are the bakers, restaurants, and caterers. Over the years, it hasn’t been just Mr. Realmuto’s Honest Man Restaurant Group donating soup. Indian Wells Tavern, Fresno restaurant, the Art of Eating, DG Catering, Almond, the Hayground School, and George Hirsch are among those who have also cooked for the dinners.
Mr. Realmuto said guests can expect a variety of soups ranging from a vegetarian squash soup to pork pozole, a Mexican favorite, to a hearty chili or chicken soup.
“I think it’s a really, really nice thing not just for people who are in need . . . but it also becomes a community event, which is really nice,” he said.
The goal, said Mr. Brunelle, is also to break down barriers between the various religious organizations in the community. “A lot of this is to tear some of that down by ministering together in caring for those in our area that need help.”
Ms. Quaranto said the social outcomes of the soup dinners over the years have been numerous and satisfying. People have helped each other find jobs, and once, someone who was desperate for a computer was given one by someone he met at a dinner who was looking to donate his old one. “We have senior citizens who are tired of eating alone who come and feel like they’ve had a family meal,” she said. “We had a little girl come who said she’d never been to such a fancy restaurant in her whole life.”
Ms. Quaranto said this year’s soup dinners will proceed much the same as they have in the past, although she has one goal in mind: to figure out a transportation system that would allow people to attend even if they do not drive at night or are otherwise unable to get to the church. “That would be my wish for 2016. Hopefully, somebody will have an idea,” she said.
In addition to being helpful, the dinners, Ms. Quaranto, Mr. Realmuto, and Rev. Brunelle all agreed, are simply enjoyable.
“Part of the fun for me is getting to see people working in any kind of ministry, getting people to see each other as brothers and sisters, and getting to know new people,” Mr. Brunelle said. “I think it’s an important aspect of the soup dinners here.”