Club Spotlight: Soup Kitchen Club

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Members of the Soup Kitchen Club, making treats for a local soup kitchen.

Senior Andela Barun is the president of Soup Kitchen Club.

What do you do in this club?

Soup Kitchen Club helps to make desserts for the St. Mary’s soup kitchen in Ardmore. We bake about once a month and it’s always something different. We’ve made Oreo truffles before and we will be making rose cupcakes in May.

How and when did it get started at Harriton?

Harriton graduate Nina Spitofsky actually started the club when she was a sophomore. She spent a lot of time at the St. John’s soup kitchen in Norristown and wanted more people to get involved so she expanded it to Harriton.

What sets Soup Kitchen apart from other service-oriented clubs at Harriton and in HSL?

Soup Kitchen is different from other service clubs because we primarily focus on baking or producing things for soup kitchens. The stuff we make has a direct impact on people in our local community. You don’t have to go far to help people! We have people in our own neighborhood whose lives we change.

What do you think Harriton Soup Kitchen’s main accomplishment has been while you were in the club?

[Last year] Nina released a cookbook which I helped with and it was amazing! This is my first year running the club without her, so I guess just making sure we had monthly meetings. Last year was very focused on the cookbook, so baking wasn’t as big, and this year the club goal was to have a baking session at least once a month – so far, so good! We’ve definitely been more focused on the baking this year and getting food to the soup kitchen.

As head of the club, what have you learned from your position?

I definitely learned how to be more of a leader, how to send emails to hundreds of people, how to get things done, be professional, and more polite. I also learned a lot about serving others and learned how to focus on other people through delivering the goods to the kitchen. I learned how to be more humble and grounded and appreciate every opportunity I’m given. I realized how lucky I am to even be going to college and fortunate to have family and friends support me. You don’t realize how many people don’t have the opportunities that a lot of kids at Harriton do which is very eye-opening, especially since the soup kitchen is so close our school.

What type of students would you recommend to join the Soup Kitchen Club next year?

You can still join if you want to! We have two baking sessions left and different people come each time. But I think anyone who wants to help others in our local community and have fun baking should join this club.

If you are interested in coming in for the final sessions or getting involved next year, contact Andela or Foods teacher Ms. Binkley.