“Give me a piece of paper” (said the traveler) “and I’ll write it down for you,” which he did as follows: “A recipe to make Stone Soup—Take a large stone, put it into a sufficient quantity of boiling water; properly season it with pepper and salt; add three or four pounds of good beef, a handful of pot-herbs, some onions, a cabbage, and three or four carrots. When the soup is made the stone may be thrown away.” — Published in The American Magazine of Wit, 1808
Richard Weinroth can pinpoint where the idea originated for Stone Soup Project LA, a soup-based San Fernando Valley nonprofit he started in 2020.
Weinroth was in a New Orleans kitchen in 2006 working as part of disaster relief support services after Hurricane Katrina. “I volunteered with volunteers from all over the world, helping to make over 2,000 meals a day. It began as one kitchen, growing to three sites that provided meals and assistance to volunteers and locals,” says the Lake Balboa resident.
He planned to volunteer for only a few days, maybe wash some dishes, organize the food pantry. “Six months later I was still there,” he says with a laugh.
Weinroth had dabbled in culinary arts while growing up in Calabasas (he worked in many restaurants and owned a “little Italian pizza joint”), but seeing how great the need was in New Orleans after Katrina changed his perspective on hunger, he says. “It certainly inspired a change in my own place on the food chain.”
Weinroth noticed a lot of meals were going uneaten. Not from just his kitchen but others around the area. Good stuff was being tossed. Th is irked Weinroth, who saw value in that food and is a fervent advocate of reducing food waste for the benefit of humanity and the environment.
He visited other food locations and restaurants, and eventually talked them into sending their food scraps to him at the end of the day. “I put all that stuff into a giant soup pot. And I found the biggest food processing stick I could,” he says. He would blend, shape and create amazing soups.
But the idea was put on the back burner for a spell. After Katrina, Weinroth returned to Southern California with a goal to work at a nonprofit to “help feed the world.” He stumbled on a Craigslist ad looking for a new food bank director at the established nonprofit Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND), based in Pacoima. He applied and started volunteering in the kitchen to see if it might be a good fit.
For Richard Weinroth, a peanut butter sandwich just wouldn’t do. Using whatever food was donated, he whipped up such sides as curry coconut creamed spinach and sweet potatoes with dried cherries. “We were a little famous for it,” he says.
Leadership saw Weinroth’s high-fueled enthusiasm and organizational skills; he took reins as the food bank director and chef. He honed his cooking chops, creating meals for the hungry and homeless. For Weinroth, a peanut butter sandwich just wouldn’t do. Using whatever food was donated, he whipped up such sides as curry coconut creamed spinach and sweet potatoes with dried cherries. “We were a little famous for it,” he says.
Weinroth was with MEND for nine years; he later served as director of programs for Food Forward, a North Hollywood–based nonprofit also born from the idea of not letting food go to waste.
Stone Soup Project LA really began shortly after the pandemic started, when Weinroth was asked to make soup for a local senior center and to sell it. “I figured that if I sold enough, I could just give it away to those who needed it most. I started by selling to my friends and neighbors,” he says.
It was purely word of mouth, but Weinroth quickly realized he was onto something. People loved his soups. Soup is complicated and also resonates on multiple levels, he explains.
“It’s amazing that so much flavor, nutrition, creativity and love can be packed into something as seemingly simple but surprisingly complex as a bowl of soup.”
And nonprofits gladly welcomed the donations.
So in April 2020, Weinroth established Stone Soup Project LA, where he is, for the most part, a one-man show calling himself chief bottle washer, lead alchemist and chef, community outreacher, VP of soupy sales and Soupmobile pilot. Yes, he personally delivers customers’ soup directly to their doors.
“It’s amazing that so much flavor, nutrition, creativity and love can be packed into something as seemingly simple but surprisingly complex as a bowl of soup.” —Richard Weinroth
In the walk-in cooler in the commercial kitchen he uses at the Harbor Cares Foundation, a residential care center in Mission Hills, Weinroth shows off rows of Stone Soup. The lemony chicken is popular, likely because chicken soup is familiar, he says. The recipe is a variation of his mom’s chicken soup, though “she would roll over in her grave because of the combination of herbs and lemon, and any comparison to her own chicken soup,” says Weinroth.
Customers will then gravitate to other offerings: curry chicken with roasted pineapple, sun-dried tomato basil bisque, and chicken chili with pumpkin and cinnamon.
“Stone Soups can be a meal alone,” Weinroth explains. “But they can also be ladled over rice, like our chunky enchilada, unstuffed cabbage, chicken pozole verde and curry chicken. Our creamy roasted garlic and sun-dried tomato basil bisque makes a great pasta sauce and a fantastic lasagna.”
The plan is to begin offering non-soup items such as beef birria, pulled pork and barbecue chicken, “as well as my Grandpa Charlie’s sauce, which is actually vegan, accidentally.”
Today, customers who purchase from Stone Soup Project LA are supporting local nonprofits such as North Valley Caring Services, along with One Generation, Valley Rescue Mission and Hope of the Valley.
And now for the well-deserved plug: “If we can sell more Stone Soup, we can give to more agencies throughout town and more often. We may help local nonprofits fighting hunger and poverty by supplementing their efforts, but we see it as supporting our neighbors and communities in need,” he says. “Families, kids, seniors, those struggling with homelessness—that’s who we work to support.”
- For more information, visit StoneSoupProjectLA.com
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Brenda Rees is a writer living in Eagle Rock. Originally from Minnesota, she fondly remembers how Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup was a kitchen staple.
