Housing Hope's 'Stone Soup' recipe for community

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The folktale of “Stone Soup” — shared in various traditions — tells of travelers to a town who, to encourage villagers to share their food, let slip their recipe for stone soup, tossing a rock into a large pot and persuading the locals to improve on the soup’s flavor with their own ingredients.

Housing Hope, founded in Snohomish County in 1987, has for many years used the Stone Soup folktale as a touchstone for its annual fundraising event, held last week at the Tulalip Resort.

The event helps support work that has allowed the nonprofit to build, own and operate 652 units of affordable apartments at 25 locations throughout the county and build 328 households for homeowners through its “sweat equity” Team Homebuilding program.

Additionally, its HopeWorks enterprises, which will merge this July with Housing Hope, operates four social enterprise businesses — Renew Home & Decor, Kindred Kitchen, Tomorrow’s Hope Child Development Center and Ground Works Landscaping — that provide real-world job training for Housing Hope residents.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-housing-hopes-stone-soup-recipe-for-community/

[SARose]

1. The Wonderful Soupstone

Last edited Tue May 20, 2025, 07:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Hanging from a string in my mama's kitchen, back in the hard time days

Was a little ol' stone 'bout the size of an apple, it was smooth and worn and grey

There wasn't much food in my mama's kitchen, so whenever things got tight

Mama boiled up some water, put in the stone and said "Let's have some soup tonight"

And I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrowbone
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes
And the wonderful, wonderful soupstone

It had been in the family for a whole lotta years, so we knew it was a nourishing thing

And I remember mama, as she stirred it in the water, and we could all hear her sing

"Its a magical stone and as long as we got it, we'll never have a hungry night

Just add a little love to the wonderful soupstone and everything will be alright"

Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show 1973

One of my favorite songs!