Making soup while building solidarity

Jane-Marie Law is an associate professor in the Department of Asian Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. She has been at Cornell for 30 years, with one of her main areas of teaching and research focused on how communities have developed sustainable food systems.

Law grew up in Montana, learning a great deal about cooking in Home Economics classes all four of her high school years.

While Law couldn’t have guessed where her background would take her to today, it is quite providential that she is taking a sabbatical in 2021, enabling her to focus on something that started with her own response to concern for people with food insecurity when the COVID-19 pandemic began and evolved into Operation Soup Pot Love (OSPL).

Law started cooking beans, collecting soup pots and ingredients, and giving them away to people in need. She started a Facebook Group with five people offering to help, resulting in 75 responses very quickly.

“I saw right away that there is a real cultural divide between people who can cook and some who are food insecure who can’t,” Law explained. “So, I decided to teach them. I started with minestrone soup. I bought the ingredients, and others donated money to help. I was also recognizing the food at food pantries is good quality, but people need to know how to cook it and have the tools needed to do it.”

Thus, Law founded OSPL to overcome the alienation that people have felt to food, each other, their own self-worth, their dignity and their kitchens.

Law’s Facebook Page, Mutual Aid Operation Soup Pot Love, has grown to 250 members, though the participants who receive the weekly soup ingredients and quality cooking tools is capped at 50.

“An anonymous donor purchased 35 brand-new soup pots, a gentleman in Cortland donated fabric from his deceased wife’s store in her honor to make aprons, and another lady is making the aprons for moms and kids,” Law said. “Seeing people sharing and supporting one another is incredibly powerful.”

Amber (Dow) Rappleye grew up in McLean but has lived in Groton since 2014, first as a single mom in the 107th Psalm Christian Family Home and right next door since her marriage to her husband, Kyle, in 2015.

Amber spotted Law’s post about OSPL on a Facebook mutual aid page and “thought it was a great idea, in part because of our local food insecurity being on the rise due to COVID,” she said. She contacted Law to ask how she could be involved.

Law needed help picking up soup pots from Ithaca, so Amber volunteered. That was the beginning of her OSPL journey.
Amber unabashedly admits that “funds were tight” for her because of the pandemic and was delighted to be one of the first recipients of a high-quality soup pot.

Making soup for her family is something Amber has always done, but she now feels much more confident in her skills and said she has learned to brave new recipes from OSPL.

“I never would have tried to make tomato or broccoli-cheddar soup,” Amber said. “It just seemed too daunting. I am also a very picky eater, and this really gets you to try new things.”

Having the right tools provided to do the job also motivates Amber, such as the roasting pan she needed to roast her own garlic — taught by Law — and an immersion blender to make her soups smooth.

Amber cooks for eight people each week — her own family of four and two sets of neighbors who are unable to cook for themselves — with help from her two young daughters.

“It’s all a collaborative effort. Everyone makes it possible,” Amber said. “We’re all so isolated because of COVID, but being part of a group cooking the same soup as everyone else gives me a strong sense of community.”

Rebeca Caceres-Moss lives in Cortland but is a member of Groton Assembly of God. She read about OSPL in the Jan. 27 edition of this column and immediately wanted to get involved. She did, along with her husband, Chuck, and children Emilia (age 8) and Benjamin (age 6). Rebeca is a chef by trade and said she “really understands what a healing power soup has. Sharing soup, especially now during a pandemic, is so unifying. People appreciate it.”

The children help every week. Benjamin likes to mix and helps with the cleanup. Emilia likes to measure because the math component in cooking lures her in.

“My neighbor came down with COVID-19,” Rebeca said. “I made sure she had soup for at least two weeks. We didn’t just tell her we care; we showed her we care and that she matters to our family.”

Rebeca delivers soup ingredients weekly to 10 participants and emphasized that it is a real commitment because people count on receiving them.

“Chuck is my pilot and my human GPS,” Rebeca said. “I am teaching my kids about serving others, about commitment. I bring them along every Saturday to deliver. Our faith in action.”

Rebeca said that OSPL is a community of people who care.

“I never experienced that from ‘strangers’ before,” she said. “I am more than grateful for my involvement and feel blessed to participate.”

Law is committed to continuing OSPL until the week before Thanksgiving, incorporating a unit of salads beginning in May and breads in August. She recently launched her own YouTube channel, Jane-Marie Law.

Financial support to sponsor families is always welcome. The cost per month per family is about $50.

“Solidarity, not charity, is mutual aid,” Law said. “Trust people for what they say they need. Try to always be addressing root causes. Building solidarity meets social and emotional needs. Operation Soup Pot Love is not a program, a project, a job, a club or a class. We are an operation with a tactical mission: to make yummy soups for ourselves, our families and our community as a way of showing care and attention to the things that really matter in life — human kindness, equality, acceptance, dignity, meaning and purpose.”

Groton on the Inside appears weekly. Submit news ideas to Linda Competillo, lmc10@cornell.edu or 607-227-4922.

In Brief: 

Drive-thru prime rib dinner 

The McLean Fire Department Auxiliary will host a drive-thru prime rib dinner at the McLean Fire Station, 2 Stevens Rd., on March 20 from 4 to 6 p.m. 

Dinners are $25 each and will include an 8-ounce prime rib, au jus, baked potato with butter and sour cream, tossed salad with Italian dressing, dinner roll and butter, and cheesecake for dessert.  

Reservations are required by March 13 by calling Marietta Miller at (607) 838-8249. 

Agricultural Literacy Week 

The Tompkins County Farm Bureau, in conjunction with the Tompkins County Dairy Princess Program, will be presenting Agricultural Literacy Week (ALW) March 15 through March 19 in local elementary schools.  

Tompkins County Dairy Ambassador Addie Clore of Millbrook Farms will be reading in Groton Elementary School.  

The dairy industry will be represented in 2021, as the book “Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish (Tales of the Dairy Godmother)” by Viola Butler will be read to students. This is a unique tale of agriculture with vivid illustrations and an engaging storyline. The book will help students understand the importance of dairy in communities across New York and learn about the journey their food takes from farm to cone. 

Can and bottle drive 

The parents of the Groton Senior Class of 2021, as well as candidates running for office in the town of Groton — Robin Cargian for town clerk, Ellard Keister for highway superintendent, Crystal Young for Town Council, Richard Gamel for Town Council and Donald Scheffler for town supervisor — will be sponsoring a can and bottle drive to raise funds for the class March 17 through March 20.   

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this is not a school-sponsored event. It will be held outdoors at the CR Rankin Pavilion on Main Street. 

GPL Book Club

The Groton Public Library Book Club will meet at 7 p.m. March 18. This month’s book is “Bring Me Back” by B.A. Paris. Contact director@grotonpubliclibrary.org for Zoom link and a copy of the book.