James Acker and all of Rugby Soupe (written by Dave)
Club President, Player and Referee (lol)
MIRFC and Quebec rugby community at large come together to provide meals and other necessities to people in need
I do not know exactly how Rugby Soupe started. I believe my friend James saw on CBC that volunteers were needed to make food and, being who he is, said to himself: “we need to find a way to help our fellow humans during this time.” Being a person of action, James decided that he had to do something – so he started making soup. He went out, bought the ingredients, and then he started cooking. Before long, a veritable army of volunteers, donors, chefs, drivers and well-wishers – all in one way or another associated with the rugby community in Montreal – were lending their support.
Rugby Soupe is a not for profit organization born from the Montreal rugby communityduring the Covid 19 pandemic which focuses on minimizing food insecurity for the city’s homeless population.
Founder James Acker remarked: “I haven’t asked a single person for help, yet we’re now 30+ people involved in the effort (…) more than the food, we’ve given a boost to the cooks and front line workers from these organizations; 15$ produces 50 servings; we’re making an impact on food insecurity, and are perhaps seeing a sharing economy of the future where food insecurity simply doesn’t exist (…)
There are at least 8 clubs now implicated [in Rugby Soupe] directly: TMR, SAB, ParcO, RCM, Westmount, Wanderers, Beaconsfield, Irish.”
Volunteers for a good cause
As of May 8th, Rugby Soupe has cooked and delivered over 6,000 meals and is averaging over 150 meals per day. Simply put, this is an amazing accomplishment and we salute each volunteer involved in this program.
Like in any successful organization, it is impossible to mention everybody that is involved, but James wanted me to specifically mention Dave Keane, Etienne Labrie, Kenny Macintyre, Sommer Christie, Martin Silverstone, John Lavery, Alain Ouellette, Dion Varvarikos & Tom Smith.
Rugby Soupe’s main benefactor is Resilience Montreal.
According to their website (http://www.nwsm.info/resilience-montreal), Resilience are a “collaboration between the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and Nazareth Community.
It is a low-barrier service open to everyone, providing food and shelter as well as mental health and medical support services and access to a multitude of other resources.”
Quiz Nights
As part of the Rugby Soupe initiative, some club members have been putting together a quiz night to raise funds and awareness, while having a good time with friends. From having attended the last one myself, I can tell you that Larissa (with the help of Tim) put on a great night.
I asked our own Tim Yaworski about the quiz night, and he said: “Rugby soupe quiz night has been a great escape from everything that us been going on around us. With Larissa as the quiz master, people from both rugby and non rugby backgrounds get together for a night of many smiles, laughs and the testing of their knowledge (not to mention the team names! Quiz in my pants and team boom shakalaka to name a few).
The response has been great after 3 iterations and we look forward to more in the future.”
How can I Help?
Stay tuned to Facebook and other medium for information on the next quiz!
To learn more about Rugby Soupe, or to get involved or make a donation, please visit https://www.rugbysoupe.com/