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Supporting Your Health with our Anticancer Mediterranean SoupMeals Since 2009

Since 2009, we have served over 1 million nutrient-dense SoupMeals to residents in Santa Barbara County and beyond.

Who We Are

We make our organic SoupMeals from scratch. We do it all: everything from working with farms and purveyors to procuring premium ingredients to hand-chopping produce and slow-roasting seasoned veggies for our signature broths. Each recipe is clinically formulated with 10-20 medicinal-quality ingredients to build the immune system, lower inflammation, and promote healing. SoupMeals are a complete, balanced meal with no added sugar, preservatives or fillers. 

Our Mission & Purpose

Our mission is to provide metabolic oncology nutrition and food security to support the health and wellness of low-income seniors and other individuals with cancer or chronic illness.

We are a small-but-mighty team of 5 staff members and more than 50 volunteers and community agency and farm partners that share a vision where everyone in Santa Barbara County has access to clean, whole food nutrition.

Our Story

Since 2009, Organic Soup Kitchen has been a vital asset to the Santa Barbara community. For 14 years, it has been and will remain our mission to eliminate food insecurity for our vulnerable, low-income neighbors and seniors struggling to fight the effects of cancer and chronic illnesses.

Shortly into our humble endeavor, Santa Barbara’s medical community became aware of our organic, nutrient-dense soups. Our partnership with the medical community expanded, as did our client outreach. Thus, the Cancer Recovery Program, a division of Organic Soup Kitchen, launched in 2013. We established a Soup Meal production and delivery system with trained volunteer drivers to personally deliver our meals to the homes of our clients and ensure compassionate community connections.

Social Enterprise

Because there is so much demand for premium nutrition in the community – we have a waiting list – we feel responsible to be as efficient and effective as we can with the critical service we provide. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means that like other nonprofits, every year we are dependent upon grants and donations that are often unpredictable and create uncertainty in our operating model. In order to continue serving the community that relies on us, we run our operation as an innovative social enterprise. This means that in order to support free and subsidized SoupMeals, we also sell soup to those who can afford to pay full price, so that we can expand our reach to low-income clients. 100% of SoupMeal sales to clients that can afford to pay full price helps to fund SoupMeals going to those who cannot; it also allows us to introduce our delicious soups to people who become loyal monthly donors.

Ethics & Values

Throughout the years, integrity is the consistent thread that holds Organic Soup Kitchen together.

We operate under the highest social responsibilities as an organization. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit since 2009, Organic Soup Kitchen has upheld the following standards as we conduct our operations. The purpose of this code is to protect the organization’s tax-exempt status when contemplating a transaction or arrangement that could benefit an officer, director, or employee. This code is intended to supplement, but not replace, any applicable state and federal laws governing conflict of interest that apply to nonprofit organizations.

As a respected leader in nutrition and health in Santa Barbara County for 14 years, Organic Soup Kitchen has established trust and transparency with our community, emphasized through our GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency. We do not compromise the integrity of our products and services as we distribute high-quality, organic foods and integrate industrial methods for safe food preservation and production.

​Proven to withstand natural economy pitfalls, recessions, and natural disasters, we have established credibility with support from diverse community leaders and residents. Organic Soup Kitchen is an advocate for equal rights.

We uphold the law to the fullest extent of a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit with a full Board of Directors and regulated executive staff. Our organization avoids conflict of interest, as we do not participate in any political, religious, financial, commercial, private, or otherwise personal interests for organizational benefit.

Who We Are

We make our organic SoupMeals from scratch. We do it all: everything from working with farms and purveyors to procuring premium ingredients to hand-chopping produce and slow-roasting seasoned veggies for our signature broths. Each recipe is clinically formulated with 10-20 medicinal-quality ingredients to build the immune system, lower inflammation, and promote healing. SoupMeals are a complete, balanced meal with no added sugar, preservatives or fillers. 

Through our relationships with local farmers, we are proud to rescue and stabilize thousands of pounds of fresh organic produce annually. This not only reduces food waste and our carbon footprint, it allows us to improve our ability to meet the growing demand for nutrition and food security. In 2023, we opened a new Distribution & Education Center just one block away from our flagship kitchen in order to expand our capacity and community reach. 

In addition to hand crafting thousands of SoupMeals each week, we deliver them to the doorsteps of residents' homes through our network of more than 50 volunteers and community agency partners. Home delivery supports our clients’ ability to thrive independently at home as many individuals recovering from cancer or chronic illness struggle with fatigue or mobility issues that restrict them from shopping or cooking. On top of food insecurity, this creates the threat of isolation. Every week, our team of dedicated delivery drivers provide not only consistent SoupMeals, but a kind, compassionate face at our clients’ doors. Often our volunteers are our clients’ only point of contact for the week.

Our Story

In 2008, our nation and community was hit by recession. People all around us were losing their jobs and homes. Watching our friends and neighbors suddenly struggling to make ends meet, we knew we had to help. So, we started making large pots of soup out of our home kitchen and taking it down to the local park. After a while, we got a knock on the door from the health inspector who told us we needed permits and licensing to continue serving food. So, that’s what we did. For years we operated out of the Veterans’ Building on Cabrillo Street, making soup and holiday meals from scratch and serving them to our vulnerable community members. We roasted dozens of turkeys, mashed thousands of pounds of potatoes, enlisted an army of volunteers, and served hundreds of fresh cooked meals to rooms full of grateful residents each Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Not long into our humble endeavor, we got a call from an oncologist at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The physician asked if we could blend one of our soups for a patient he was sending home with a condition called dysphagia that made it difficult for him to swallow. We said yes, and from that request our Cancer and Chronic Illness Recovery Program was born. Word of our organic, nutrient-dense soups spread quickly through the Santa Barbara medical community, and we began working closely with physicians to develop recipes that met the specific needs of their patients recovering from cancer. As those collaborations grew, we perfected our clinically-formulated recipes and expanded our reach. 

Today, we are proud to be the leading nutrition referral source for many of Santa Barbara’s extraordinary health and human service agencies. It’s these compassionate community connections that ensure our hand-crafted soups are getting to those who need them most. This is what gets us up in the morning and to the kitchen by 5 am to make soup; we deeply care about our clients and know that they depend on the nourishment we deliver to them each week. It’s truly a labor of love.

Our Team