Read about the History of
Soup Angels of Nyack below
Three women, all members of Sunday Supper soup kitchen in Nyack came together in the belief that there was an urgent need for further food assistance to provide, “ a free, hot, nutritious meal to anyone who needs a meal in the Nyack area, no questions asked”. Intense conversation followed, and one of the women, Kathleen Myers suggested the perfect name;
“Soup Angels." The soup kitchen was to be non-sectarian, to cook all our food with attention to quality, healthiness, and flavor, and to treat all our guests with dignity and care. That would mean tablecloths, candles, and music, and our guests served restaurant-style by waiters, using china plates and real cutlery. The First Reformed Church of Nyack offered Soup Angels needed space in their Pitkin Room and has continuously done so since 2006.
In the fall of 2005, as Ms. Myers, Kathleen Berry, and Katherine Rife gathered resources and fundraised for an April opening for the soup kitchen, they were approached by a benefactor who asked if Soup Angels might consider providing a turkey dinner to members of the community in need and that they would underwrite the expense. That first Thanksgiving meal, Soup Angels served upwards of 100 guests a sit-down, multiple-course Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, including pumpkin and apple pie for dessert. This meal has served as the template for Thanksgiving sit-down and take out meals that have expanded exponentially over the past seventeen years.
Soup Angels has not missed a single meal since its opening in 2006. We have served during snowstorms and intense heat in addition to offering continuous daily meals during Hurricane Sandy to all in need, including first responders. In 2010, Soup Angels again felt that there was a need in the community for an additional hot meal, and Wednesday was the chosen day of the week. We added Monday meals four years later, and both of our two weekly meals were further supplemented by take-home fresh fruit from our bounty table plus sandwiches, as the to-go meals of the day.
With the arrival of the Covid- 19 pandemic, Soup Angels was presented with the challenge of continuing to offer hot meals on Mondays and Wednesdays and never missing a meal during the entirety of 2020 to the current day. However, the need for grocery items for our guests became acute, especially for families with children. We began offering recovered food from local grocery stores to our guests. Our astounding group of volunteers came bi-weekly to sort and organize dairy, meat, fresh produce, and dry goods. In 2022 alone, we accepted 180,000 pounds of recovered groceries from local organizations TOUCH and BRIDGES to offer to food-insecure members of our community. In 2023, our Steering Committee agreed to offer sit-down dining once again, accompanied by up to 500 hot meals to-go with food pantry items We ended the food pantry in August 2023, but continue to offer sit-down meals every week.
Our soup kitchen boasts over 200 volunteers from Rockland and Bergen counties who take on tasks such as membership on one or more of our 14 service teams, shoppers, sous-chefs for the various professional chefs or caterers from our community who create the meals, and organizers of our space for sit-down dining.
We at Soup Angels will continue our mission into the future, thanks to the generosity of community members, local businesses, The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley and food recovery organizations mentioned above. We are honored to serve senior citizens, families with young children, the unemployed, the underemployed, the disabled, those who lack a home or shelter, and anyone who is food-insecure.​
We are in the process of acquiring our own 501c3 designation, and our official name is "Soup Angels of Nyack".