January is National Soup Month; Celebrate It with Stew and Friends

January is National Soup Month. It’s possibly the perfect designation for one of the coldest months of the year. Few things knock the chill off than coming in from outdoors and sitting down to a steaming bowl of soup.

National Soup Month in January is a month. Why not make a pot of soup, stew or gumbo to share with friends. Looking for other ideas? Here's a few to get you started.

Learn a new recipe.

One of the nicest things about soup is that it is easy to make. New recipes are often easy to learn. Once we create a base we toss in whatever vegetables and meat that we have on hand. Gumbo and stews are good catch alls for leftover vegetables. Each can be as cheap or as expensive as we want to make it. There is almost always no way to go wrong.

There may be times when we want to create something different. Celebrating National Soup Month in January gives you the opportunity to try something new. There is an abundance of online recipes to help you create a delicious bowl of soup.

Try making a general search under “soup recipes” and you’ll find hundreds. Refine your searches by type of soup. You can also look for ideas on Allrecipes.net, Foodnetwork.com, Simplysoups.com or other such sites.

Share with friends.

Everything tastes better when shared with friends. Make a big pot of your favorite soup or chili. Send a few emails and make some phone calls to invite your friends over for dinner. Since January is National Soup Month it’s a good time to get together with friends.

Volunteer in a soup kitchen.

Technically soup kitchens don’t always serve soup. That’s ok because it isn’t what matters. What’s important is that you are giving your time to help feed others who need it. During National Soup Month in January, your friendly smile, word of encouragement and plate (or bowl) of food may be all that’s needed to make someone’s day.

Deliver soup to an older friend or family member.

Speaking of making someone’s day…

Why not deliver a bowl of soup to a friend or family member who can’t get out or who has trouble getting around? Since January is National Soup Month sharing your soup is a great way to celebrate.

Divide the soup into individual storage containers and take several of them. The recipient can enjoy a bowl now and put some in the refrigerator or freezer to reheat later.

Hold a soup drive for your local shelter or food pantry.

Contact the local charity to find out what days they accept donations. Decide on dates to end and begin your drive based on when the nonprofit can handle food donations. Put a medium sized cardboard box in the break room and ask your coworkers to add canned soup to the box.

The Souper Bowl of Caring happens every year on the weekend of the Super Bowl. The effort begins in mid-January and is geared toward alleviating hunger in your local community. Their website provides resources to help make it all happen. Last year, over 260,000 people participated. Learn more by clicking here. 

All this will cost is a little time, a phone call or two and a couple of flyers. It may seem like a small thing to you but it means a lot to someone else. Hosting a soup drive is one of the best ways to celebrate January as National Soup Month.