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.
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.
Congratulations to Little Chefs, Big Change who won the people's vote for our September 2025 SOUP dinner for their After-School Healthy Cooking Program project. They walked away with $911.00 which will support healthy cooking classes for students in South Knoxville after-school programs that serve low-income children and families!
Submit your idea for a community project for Knoxville for the next Knoxville SOUP.
Deadline is September 14th
Knoxville SOUP Needs Volunteers
To continue successful dinners, Knoxville SOUP needs the support of the community. You can help by volunteering to help at the dinner or help plan the next event. If you're interested, complete our online volunteer application.