SouperFest
17 Years of the Best from the Best for SouperFest
Thank you to our 2025 SouperFest event sponsors:
Bangor Savings Bank
Baron’s Major Brands
Ciborowski Associates
Concord Imaging Center
Cummings Printing Co.
Franklin Savings Bank
Gondwana & Divine Clothing Co.
Havenwood Heritage Heights
Lovering Auto Group
MicroDAQ
Milestone Construction
Modern Woodmen of America
Plodzik & Sanderson, PA
Unitarian Universalist Church of Concord
Vintage Kitchens
Soup Fest to SouperFest
SouperFest’s predecessor, “Soup Fest,” was founded by Jim Kinhan in 2009 to honor senior members of South Church for their service to the Church, and to provide funding for youth mission trips. In 2010, The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH), which was housed at the time at South Church, became Soup Fest’s beneficiary and primary partner.
In 2015, the event moved to a larger venue at Rundlett Middle School and grew to become “SouperFest.” What had been a modest church-based fundraiser making less than $4,000 became a major community event that raised nearly $38,000 by 2016.
In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SouperFest was held entirely online, and then moved to an outdoor event at White Park in 2021 and 2022, with soups provided by some of Concord’s best restaurants.
In 2025, CCEH hopes to raise $50,000 from SouperFest, and to generate public awareness and support for CCEH’s work and ultimately end homelessness in our community.
Initially the event was a version of “stone soup,” based on the folktale about community and sharing with neighbors in need. Soup has so many connections with what CCEH does: soup lines, soup kitchens, an inexpensive but filling meal, a comfort food, something that’s easy to cook and eat; it’s warming, both literally and figuratively.
The concept of sharing soup, sharing a meal, talking over a table with your family, neighbors, friends, that really embodies the concept of community solutions, working together on this shared goal of ending homelessness.
