Jan Casbourn’s IODE chapter has been a regular at Alton Farms Estate Winery events, but never selling soup before.
“We’ve never made soups for any other fundraiser before,” said the member with Sarnia-Lambton’s Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire Hon. Malcolm Cameron chapter.
“I think it was a great idea,” she said Saturday afternoon, shortly before ladling another cup to a patron at the Aberarder-area winery’s second annual Soup Fest.
It started in 2021 as an add-on to the annual Christmas Market where vendors set up tables, amid wine tastings, mulled wine and hot chocolate, said Marc Alton.
“Because it’s fun,” he said about why he and Anne Kurtz-Alton came up with the idea.
Typically 500-1,000 people attend the market and initiatives raise $1,000 or $2,000 for charities, he said.
Often it runs multiple days, but this year’s was Saturday only amid other events, he said.
Casbourn’s coconut curry lentil and rice soup was sold out just a couple of hours in, as she and Linda Gryner, with the Sarnia IODE Errol Egremont chapter staffed one of the soup kiosks.
Other charities selling their homemade creations included St. Joseph’s Hospice and the Brain Injury Association of Sarnia-Lambton.
Setup fees from vendors selling things like jewelry, pottery and birdhouses were going to the Inn of the Good Shepherd, according to the winery.
Casbourn said the money raised at Soup Fest for her IODE chapter isn’t earmarked for anything, but the organization gives out educational awards, backpacks with school supplies for kids, and books to Literacy Lambton, among other initiatives, she said.
“Just wherever the need is,” she said.
“We go in and we make meals if we need to.”