The Rock Soup Greenhouse and Food Bank

A recent theft has left the Rock Soup Greenhouse and Food Bank in a precarious financial situation. We are in urgent need of your support to allow these essential and impactful community services to continue!

The Rock Soup Greenhouse and Food Bank is a grassroots, community-led charity in Wetaskiwin, AB, offering a barrier-free, disability-run, cost-free grocery store and 4-seasons greenhouse. Our culturally appropriate and trauma-informed approach offers a much-needed alternative to the often stigmatizing emergency food access services typically available. We are by the community, for the community. Your donation helps ensure this beautiful community has access to dignified, inclusive spaces!

Website: www.rocksoup.ca | Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq_abABuFMc

About us

Mission: We provide a safe space where people can connect with food, health, and each other, based on a non-intrusive, dignified, and inclusive approach.

Vision: To fulfill our mission in a self-sufficient/sustainable manner, and generate community-positive transformation towards social justice.

Context: In Wetaskiwin, AB, we serve the surrounding area including the 4 distinct First Nations in Maskwacis.

Services: Through our 3000 square foot barrier- and cost-free, disability-run grocery store and our 6000 square foot 4-season greenhouse, the Rock Soup strives to put fresh, local, sustainable food freely available for access. We also operate a community café, boutique, aquaponics, commercial kitchen and ceremonial space – providing food sovereignty for the community.

Impact: In our first year of service we provided 30 000 opportunities for food sovereignty, sharing almost 500 000 kilograms of food. We estimate over 4,000 families with approx. 4 people per family, though many families in Maskwacis are much bigger. We also assist several other grassroots, mutual aid groups to help serve around 2,000 unhoused community members across Alberta. We are one of the largest harm reduction suppliers in the province.

Team: Our grassroots, mutual aid, volunteer-run organization was created by and is run by people with disabilities, minorities, LGBTQIA2S+, seniors, Indigenous Peoples and New Comers—people who have lived experience and who do this work on a daily basis. Many of us are unhoused folks, on disability, struggling on a poverty wage and deserve to be compensated equitably for our abilities. We are the community we serve.

Approach: Accessibility, dignity, culture and community guide our service model, promoting inclusion through participation. We ensure there are no barriers to accessing the harvest and that food is freely shared within the natural support system already established in the community, assuring the helpers can continue to take care of those who are unable to harvest for themselves. Dignity, autonomy, inclusion, participation and access to basic necessities and human rights for all– this is how we do it. Food is community.

How you can help

A recent theft leaves us without enough funds to do this work, so we are relying on the good will of our communities as well as our own personal resources, and are at risk of closing. Your urgent financial support can help us ensure this important work continues!

To make all of this amazing work happen, it takes $27,000/month or $320,000/year to operate the space, source the food, run the greenhouse, cover volunteer stipends and more. This allows X people to access these important services within a safe and supportive community space.

Your contribution can help cover our ongoing costs, including:

$160/week (690/m) for truck rental for food pickup and delivery to get 5-10K lbs of food each week - reclaimed food from local companies and partnerships. Including 5,000 lb of pet food every 3 weeks

$1500/week (6,500/m) for volunteer and staff stipends

$3500/month for rent

$3000/month for utilities - this includes heating the 4-season greenhouse - which provides fresh produce, traditional medicines, chickens, aquaponics (talapia) - shared in the free grocery store.

Total is $13,690/m

We also need to cover the legal fees connected with the theft. This includes $5,000 for a civil lawyer and $200,000 to cover the losses from the theft. But the priority is to raise at least 6 months worth of budget, so we can find our footing again.

Every dollar counts!

Please give what you're able to, based on your means. We also need to cover the legal fees connected with the theft. This includes $5,000 for a civil lawyer and $200,000 to cover the losses from the theft. But the priority is to raise at least 6 months worth of budget, so we can find our footing again.

Every dollar counts! Please give what you're able to, based on your means.

$50 helps cover gas for the weekly pickup and delivery of food

$160 helps cover our weekly pickup and delivery costs for the food needed for our programs

$800 helps cover rent for the week

$3000 ensures we can stay open another month, and grow food through our greenhouse for the community.

THANK YOU! We thank you so much for your support and commitment to this important work! With your help, our community can continue to receive dignified, inclusive and welcoming food access services and community care.

It is only together we do this, and I am thankful to be able to share in it with you all. I am grateful for all of the Soup'er heroes that make this happen.