Valentine Love Keeps Cooking!

Valentine’s Day has come and gone leaving behind wilting roses, half-eaten boxes of chocolate and sweet memories—or maybe not! But for 77 struggling families in the Triangle, Valentine’s presents are yet to be enjoyed. I’m talking soup.

“Nine Bean Soup” soon will be on the tables at these 77 homes, where kids and families will taste the love of a community service project designed by an elementary school teacher in Raleigh and carried out by her students and parent volunteers.

The teacher, Michelle Belna, got the idea to put together packets of soup to give away to needy families when she received a soup kit as a gift years ago and realized that it would be a great service project for her students. For the past 10 years as a teacher, she’s been putting her own special “Nine Bean Soup” kit together to feed the hungry.

On Friday, I was one of the parents at The Franciscan School helping Belna’s students form a production line to pack the soup kits with nine types of beans, cans of tomato sauce, tomatoes with green chilis, seasoning packets and rice. The soup recipe was enclosed—in Spanish and English—on paper on which each student had made a drawing in colored crayons.

The event was part of the students’ Valentine’s Day party, but it was a unique experience for me, although I’ve been a volunteer at my kids’ school Valentine’s parties for many years. This party touched me because it moved beyond eating and making crafts for students to take home. Sure, they had a “decorate your own cookie” station, after which they got to sample their handiwork. But the party helped them see that they could help solve a big and timely problem—hunger—by creating a solution on their school desks. With recession-induced layoffs, more families are going hungry, right here in North Carolina.

One child said his favorite part of the party was distributing his personal Valentines to kids in the class but the soup kits were a good idea. “There are 77 fourth-graders,” he said. “Each soup kit feeds six people. It was fun making it, and it would also be a lot of food for everyone.”

That was a practical lesson in multiplication.

After the party, parent volunteers drove the soup packets to Catholic Parish Outreach—an agency that helps care for the poor—where other volunteers distributed them. Giving back at a school party is an idea that I think is worth passing along. Belna has shared her recipe below. If your school has a great service project going, please let us know.

For more ideas on raising thoughtful children, click to read Carolina Parent’s How to Raise Kids Who Care in a Consumer Society.

Michelle Belna’s Nine Bean Soup
2 cups of bean mix
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz.)
1 can tomatoes with green chilis (14.5 oz.)
Seasoning packet
3 stalks celery (optional)
4 carrots (optional)
1 lb. ham, sausage or ground meat (optional)
1 cup rice

Soak beans in water overnight. Drain beans. Place beans in a large pot. Add all the other ingredients except the rice. Add enough water to cover. Cook over medium heat 1-2 hours or until beans are tender. Add water as necessary so the soup does not get dry. About 20 minutes before the beans are tender, add the rice. Cook until the rice and beans are tender.
Serves 6.