About the Café

Since its creation in 2011, Stone Soup has been committed to breaking down social barriers like class, race, ability and age, in order to bring people together around cooking and eating to create a beloved community, increase equitable access to healthy food and build solidarity. The original founder of Stone Soup Café was Bernie Glassman who built the culture of the Café around Zen Peacemaker Tenets. Today, Stone Soup consists of three central programs: a Pay-What-You-Can Community Meal, a Community Store, and a Culinary Institute program. Beyond these, we offer cultural and community engagement events throughout the year such as volunteer opportunities, workshops, live music, public art displays, and festivals.

Mission

To create a community space where all are welcome to share nourishment, connection, and learning for body, mind, and spirit.

Vision

To nourish our community with healthy food, sustainable systems, responsive mutual aid programs, creativity, and a vibrant culture of belonging.

How we co-create our mission and vision:

• We commit ourselves to the ongoing work of building relationships with m members of our community, especially those exploited, oppressed, and marginalized.
• We commit to ongoing education and dialog with our neighbors, collaborating with partner organizations, and engaging with social movements.
• We commit to working together, learning from each other, and mending and course-correcting for any mistakes we make along the way.
• We promote solidarity and challenge colonialism in all its forms.

Our Programs

Community Meal

The Community Meal at Stone Soup Café provides access through curbside and delivery service to delicious, nutritious, scratch-cooked, balanced meals every Saturday to any and all of our community members on a pay-what-you-can basis. We partner with myriad Franklin County farms and businesses to source and glean fresh, local, produce and ingredients for our meals. Reducing waste, strengthening regional food systems, and improving equitable access to healthy and high-quality food are some of our highest priorities.

Our menus cater to a variety of dietary needs and cultural cuisines with vegetarian, vegan, or meat selections. Everything is gluten-free, and there is always a vegan option.

In 2024, Stone Soup Café served approximately 600 meals every Saturday.

Everybody's Community Store

The Community Store at Stone Soup Café, is a curbside food pantry that was created at the prompting of our guests during the onset of the pandemic. Since 2020, it has grown steadily as food prices have increased and stayed inflated as Covid-era benefit supplements have ended.

Every Saturday, our Community Store provides between 80-110+ households with weekly access to groceries, produce, and personal care items at no charge. We use our previously mentioned network of local partners to source items. We are also

a member agency of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. Other pantry programs in Greenfield are closed during the weekend, so the Community Store Store at Stone Soup provides important access to supplemental groceries and food for people who work conventional Mon-Fri, 9-5 type schedules.

Culinary Institute

In 2022, Stone Soup created a Culinary Institute program (SSCI) with support from the State of Massachusetts. Stone Soup Culinary Institute strives to offer more equitable access to career training and economic opportunity to people seeking a new career path, especially those who are seeking employment after a period of incarceration or recovery from addiction. Applicants who are accepted into the 12-week program attend tuition-free and leave with a Food Handlers License, a ServSafe Certificate in Kitchen Management, job skills, practicum experience, and references for securing work in the vibrant and emerging food culture here in Franklin County.

In the spring of 2024, Stone Soup is partnering with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the State of MA to provide training at SSCI for a mixed cohort of students coming from the community and from people re-entering society within a year of incarceration.

Values

1. RESPECT

2. COLLABORATION

3. CURIOSITY

4. CARE

Three Peacemaker Tenets

At the Café, we work hard to embody the Three Peacemaker Tenets adapted from the Zen Peacemakers. These tenets were first developed and articulated by one of the original founders of Stone Soup Café, Bernie Glassman, in 1994.

1. Openness: letting go of fixed ideas about yourself and others.

2. Bearing Witness: to the joy and suffering of the world.

3. Loving Action: a commitment to heal oneself and the world.

The Four Agreements

As members of this organization, we also are inspired by and do our best to commit to The Four Agreements:

1. Be impeccable with your word. Be kind, clear, truthful, and timely with your words.

2. Don’t take anything personally. Stay curious and be grateful for growth opportunities.

3. Don’t make assumptions. Reflect on what you know and don’t know: ask questions!

4. Always do your best. Show up to help the team.

The Four Agreements were created by Don Miguel Ruiz, a writer and renowned spiritual teacher. They are based on the wisdom of the Toltecs, an indigenous people of Mexico who preceded the Aztecs. These mentor statements aided in the formation of our core operating values at the Café. The staff and board of directors affirm and promote core values that ensure that all people are valued.

At the Café, we know that all people are striving to do their best and that we are always a work in progress. Through our sharing and connections, we learn about one another. Through our communication we create relationships. We treat one another with respect and compassion when discussing challenging issues. We resolve to try again when we fall short.

Strategic Goals

1) Nurture our Growth

Secure a new location to call home so that we can offer in-person dining again and expand our services. The Café will be open at least 5-days a week to nourish our neighbors on a pay-what-you-can basis.

2) Strengthen our Network

Collaborate with partner agencies to fill gaps in our local food systems and provide nutritious meals with love and dignity across all income levels.

3) Develop New Programming

Expand our culture of belonging by offering culinary, social justice, art, and wellness programming. Diversify our workshop offerings.

4) Invest in People

Develop our leadership capacity to sustain growth, support volunteers, and transition into our new space.

Location

Stone Soup Café is located in Greenfield, MA, and serves the geographic region of Franklin County, which occupies a land area of 702 square miles in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. Franklin County is the most rural county in western Massachusetts. Through our volunteer-led delivery program, Stone Soup provides pay what you can meals to Greenfield and ten surrounding towns, for people who are homebound, have limited access to transportation, or are physically or otherwise unable to come to Stone Soup in person.

You can find us at 399 Main Street, Greenfield MA 01301 (at the corner of Hope Street and Main Street). Our entrance is the red door on Hope Street.

Our mailing address is: PO Box 57, Greenfield MA 01302