By Ellen Spitaleri
Some people see a need in the community and do something about it, and that perfectly describes Craig and Ronit Gerard, the co-founders of Stone Soup PDX. The couple realized that Portland was lacking a foodservice training program, so in 2019 they created Stone Soup, with a mission to empower people experiencing barriers to employment, encouraging them to achieve self-reliance through training for careers in the foodservice industry.
The name Stone Soup harks back to an old European folk tale in which a group of strangers fill a pot with water and put in a stone. They then encourage villagers to each bring one thing to put in the pot, and soon there is enough soup for everyone to share.
The Gerards are still involved with Stone Soup; Ronit serves on the board and Craig is the director of community contacts.
At first, Stone Soup was located in NW Portland, and after training, participants staffed a fast-casual lunch counter, making and serving food to the public. But pandemic restrictions caused the restaurant to close, and the organization “forged a new path,” and began serving meals to physical-distancing shelters set up by Multnomah County to keep people safe during the pandemic, said Ellen Damaschino, Stone Soup’s executive director. This approach was a “better way to teach participants, by serving community meals,” she said.
The nonprofit organization now has two sites: one on NE Glisan St. in Montavilla, where participants receive initial training; and one at SE 28th Ave. and Powell Blvd., where the production kitchen is located.
Participants in the kitchen work one-on-one or two-on-one with cook trainers to make 1,300-1,400 meals a week to serve to contract sites, noted Julia Granet, marketing and communications coordinator. “Community meals are delivered five days a week, but some sites are fed through the weekend because we send weekend meals on Friday also,” she added.
The workforce training program is broken down into three tiers. Tier One is when participants work on foundational culinary skill building, including food safety and sanitation, knife skills and basic cooking techniques.
They also learn to write a resumé and cover letter and practice a personal pitch detailing their skills, Granet said. “But they have access to the social service coordinator throughout their time at Stone Soup PDX, and often work on these skills throughout their whole time,” she said.
In Tier Two, participants apply their new skills in daily practical meal making. And in Tier Three, participants come into the production kitchen, where they learn large-batch cooking skills in a work-training environment.
Other workforce skills include team building, communication skills, conflict resolution and kitchen and restaurant dynamics.
Damaschino noted that Stone Soup purchases most of the food used in making the community meals, and added that Grand Central Baking donates bread. In the future, she hopes to partner with Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) organizations for fresh produce.
Participants “graduate after every tier,” Damaschino said, noting that sometimes participants realize that working in the culinary field is not for them, but at least they leave Stone Soup with basic job skills in place and can also return to the program if they want to. “They can come back to our support staff at any time for a reference,” Granet added.
Damaschino emphasized that Stone Soup is not a job-placement program, but acknowledged that people have barriers to employment if they are living in a shelter or are not in school. “We want to make those barriers as low as possible,” Damaschino said. She added that part of Stone Soup’s mission uses “culinary skills as a vehicle to get people into to the workforce,” but they will need all the job skills “to achieve success in the workplace and to stay employed.”
She noted that, although participants may go on to work in restaurants, there are other opportunities for employment in retirement communities, in school cafeterias and hotels and also in catering companies.
Damaschino noted that Stone Soup receives funding from Multnomah County, private donors, grants and other sources. The organization is also contracted and paid to provide meals to community sites, she added.
Participants come to the program through social services case managers and word of mouth, Granet said, adding that people can apply for the program through stonesouppdx.com/our-programs-details.
Sometimes the process comes “full circle,” Damaschino said, noting that participants can come from “the places we are making meals for.”
She also noted that participants in a wide age range can take part and achieve success in the program; one man told her he was “unhirable, because he was over 60.” But “we watched his confidence grow over the weeks as he realized he had something to share, and is now a cook in a retirement community.”
Looking to the future, in late March Stone Soup will open a café serving meals to the public in a new building at NE 74th Ave. and Glisan St. The site, Glisan Landing, is a city-owned building staffed by Catholic Charities.
The new space is dedicated to “the permanent support of housing; the front half is studio apartments and apartments for families, and we get the bottom half for the café, prep kitchen and classroom,” Damaschino said. She added that Stone Soup is always looking for volunteers, including people who will drive the boxes of community meals to various sites in the city.
Although this is Damaschino’s first year as executive director, she was a volunteer driver for three years. “I liked to see where we put our meals; the people looked so happy to have our food,” she said. Potential volunteers can visit stonesouppdx.com/volunteer for more information.
Laurel Gunderson, left, Stone Soup’s kitchen manager, and Julia Granet, marketing and communications coordinator, check out a pan of roasted chicken pieces that will be used to make tortilla soup. Photo by Ellen Spitaleri.
