THANKS to our September 23rd Dinner Supporters!

A huge THANKS to all our sponsors and those who contributed to help make our SOUP dinners a success. We especially appreciate Knoxville Shriners for providing the beautiful dinner location, our food donors for the wonderful food, and volunteers for their service!

Thanks to Carol Lacava, Cathrine O’Bear, & Emilia Klinzing for providing sign language interpreting services for tonight's dinner!

And special thanks our emcee extraordinaire, Larsen Jay.

Please help us thank our supporters with YOUR support of their business!

Raffle Items

  • 71 South
  • AMBC
  • Averra Media
  • Bobbye Edwards
  • Borderland Tees
  • Knoxville Botanical Gardens
  • Canine Clubhaus
  • Debbie Helsley, At-Large City Council'
  • Eggspectation (Kerns Food Hall)
  • Everything Mushroom
  • Ham-n-Goodys
  • Hi-Wire
  • Highland design
  • Ijams Nature Center
  • It's a R-R-Ruff Life
  • Jig 'n Reel
  • Karyn Adams (1st District City Council Candidate)
  • Knoxville Adventure Collective
  • Knoxville Coffee Company
  • Lauren Rider, 4th District City Council
  • Legacy Parks
  • Love that BBQ
  • Matt Park
  • Matthew DeBardelaben (4th District City Council Candidate)
  • Mattress Place
  • Nathan Honeycutt (2nd District City Council Candidate)
  • Navitat Canopy Adventures
  • Old Sevier Market
  • PAWZ Dog Services
  • River Dog Bakery
  • South Coast Pizza
  • South High Senior Living
  • Southern Breeze Heating and Cooling
  • Stanley's Greenhouse
  • Sugar Queen Creamery
  • Tea & Treasures
  • Walt Montgomery
  • Weichert Group - Patrick Michael agent
  • Whimsical Mischief

Special 'SOUP pot' Donor:

  • Frank Ramey, (3rd District City Council Candidate)

Food Contributions

  • 3 Rivers Market
  • Ham-n-Goody's
  • Katie Sullivan
  • Nauti K's
  • Redbud Kitchen
  • Round up Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor
  • Shoney’s Restaurant
  • SoKno Sourdough
  • South Coast Pizza
  • South Senior High Living
  • Trailhead Beer
  • Vestal United Methodist Church

Volunteers

  • Adam Fritts
  • Barry Neal
  • Betsy Pickle
  • Danny Gray
  • Deane Horn
  • Debbie Helsley
  • Debbie Mallard
  • Eric Johnson
  • Eric Horn
  • Erin Kelbly
  • Janice Tocher
  • Julianna Tullos
  • Kara Strouse
  • Katie Sullivan
  • Keep Knoxville Beautiful
  • Lisa Horn
  • Lizzie Gaver
  • Nancy Campbell
  • Stacy Monday
  • Terri LeSueur
  • Treasure Hightower
  • Walt Montgomery

About Knoxville SOUP

Knoxville SOUP is a community micro-granting dinner that brings people together to support local projects making a difference. For a $5 donation, guests get soup, bread, and a vote to help fund creative ideas that benefit Knoxville. At the end of the night, every dollar collected at the door goes directly to the project with the most votes—turning a simple meal into real community change.

SOUP has been described as:

  • a collaborative situation
  • a public dinner
  • a platform for connection
  • a relational hub bringing together communities
  • a forum for discussion
  • an opportunity to support creative people in pursuit of the betterment of their community

Get inspired! Watch a 2 minute video of a SOUP dinner in progress.


Like the Knoxville SOUP Facebook Page to keep up with the latest information about SOUP dinners.


How it works: We will open the doors at 5:30 pm, collecting a $5.00 donation from attendees. At 6:00, 4 preselected individuals or groups will present an idea or project they would like to carry out. Each presenter (or group) has 4 minutes to inform, impassion and inspire the audience. They then have 4 minutes to answer questions from the audience. Dinner is then served while attendees digest, discuss and deliberate over the projects presented. They then cast a ballot for the project they would like most to fund.

When the evening nears a close, the ballots are counted and the group that has the most votes takes home the money from the door to help fund their project. Democracy meets Charity…

Proposals can be for anything that will benefit the community or society in general. Past winning projects have improved greenways and nature trails, provided exercise equipment for seniors, funded back to school drives, supported other charitable endeavors and even launched a small business with a social focus. There are no hard and fast rules to what a proposal should be, only that someone envisions it, asks for it and the diners vote for it.

Winners are asked to return to a subsequent dinner and share with us the success of their project. Dinners will also feature an artist each month.

After presentations, diners will have about an hour to eat, share and connect with others while voting for the project they like best. By about 7:45, the votes will be tallied and the winning project will be awarded all donations raised at the door. NOTE: a suggested donation of $5 will be collected at the door. All money raised at the door goes to the winning proposal.

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