Amplify Kalamazoo - Annual “Souper Social” Feeds Unhoused & Builds Community
Each year, as December’s cold settles in, a familiar tradition brings warmth to Kalamazoo’s unhoused community. On December 16, 2025, volunteers gathered at the Edison Neighborhood Association for the annual Souper Social Meal Prep with Kalamazoo Together Volunteers for the Unhoused, an event held on the second Tuesday of December.
The Edison Neighborhood Association, with help from local volunteers, partner with Kalamazoo Together to distribute meals directly to people living unhoused across the community.
PMN spoke with Adrienne Waller, Operations Manager at the Edison Neighborhood Association, who emphasized their attention to care and quality in the operation. “We’d like to do our soups from scratch because it’s nice and people have nice homemade soup.” Ingredients included donated bread, garden-grown vegetables, and turkeys from local partners.
PMN also spoke with Ryan Smith, Chair of the Mutual Aid Working Group, who regularly serves meals to the unhoused population. Smith described the personal motivation behind the work. “I learned from my parents how to cook, and I just figured that this would be a great thing to do.”
“He feeds the unhoused population every Friday evening,” Waller said of Smith, highlighting his dedicated and consistent involvement. Smith emphasized that food is only part of the impact. “A lot of them don’t even get spoken to a lot,” he said. “So when you’re coming up to these folks, hand them food… people are always very appreciative and thankful.”
Waller reflected on the broader meaning of the Edison Neighborhood Association’s mission. “A neighborhood is not just always a physical location. It is the people that reside within there and their interactions with each other,” she said, adding, “What makes it a solid neighborhood is community is looking out for one another.”
Volunteer participation has grown significantly over time. “In the very beginning, we had like a select few of like maybe six volunteers doing the work,” Smith said. “The amount of volunteers that we have out there now is anywhere from five to twenty folks.”
Organizers encouraged continued support through volunteering, donations, or the Edison Neighborhood Association’s 24/7 community cupboard. As Smith noted, “It’s just amazing to see people’s faces kind of light up… just for this interaction that helped them out and to be seen, you know, to be heard.”
