Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Ori Pleban

Last night, Penn's entire girl's varsity soccer team volunteered at the Hillel Soup Kitchen's first-ever going-away party.

The soup kitchen is part of the University City Hospitality Coalition program which runs soup kitchens five nights of the week in University City. The usual Sunday night Soup Kitchen, which is held at Steinhardt Hall, has become a popular place for students to do volunteer work for groups that require it, like Greek organizations.

"The goal of the soup kitchen is to create a place where guests and volunteers can interact and learn from each other," said College sophomore and co-director of the program Ahuva Kranzler.

"I have friends who I always sit down and talk to and check in with," said College junior and co-director of the Hillel soup kitchen Dave Weinreb . "We engage in philosophical conversations and talk about Philadelphia."

Each week, volunteers serve the food - pasta and meat sauce, vegetables, and cookies - pour the water, and hand out cups and forks to the guests. After each guest is served, volunteers strike up conversations with the visitors.

The end-of-the-year party for both volunteers and guests at the soup kitchen last night was funded by a $1,000 grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia's Center for Social Responsibility. The event included a performance by Sparks Dance Company and a collective game of Bingo with prizes like Phillies baseball caps, backpacks, and Fresh Grocer gift certificates.

According to College freshman and soup kitchen volunteer Hannah Connor , the weekly chance to interact with others in the West Philadelphia community is one of the unique things about the Penn Hillel soup kitchen.

"There are people here from all walks of life," she said. "The soup kitchen in particular really brightens their day."

However, "we're not just serving food," said Weinreb. "We're really trying to provide sincere human interaction to these people." He added that the soup kitchen strives to "make people who aren't always treated humanely feel human."

Soup kitchen cook and facilitator Lee Ann Draud has been working at Hillel for the past 18 years. She brings her daughter and leads the group in prayer every Sunday.

She said she keeps returning after all these years simply "because I enjoy doing this, and because there is a need."

On the way out, guests were surprised by goody bags filled with toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, water bottles, Tupperware and Dunkin' Donuts coupons in addition to the usual peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples and leftover Au Bon Pain pastries that fill the bags each week.

"It's great on our end to come to understand that not everybody begs, not everybody has drug issues, and not everybody has made a bad choice," said Weinreb. "Everybody has their own personal story and circumstance."

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