This Manchester Soup Kitchen Serves Everything But Soup

Manchester may still be missing a Michelin star, but its portrayal as London's poor, pie-and-mash-eating culinary relation is slightly unjust. From taster menus at Simon Rogan's The French to artisan cider and informal street food events Friday Food Fight, the city holds its culinary own.

But this burgeoning food scene contrasts with statistics city marketers would prefer you didn't read. As Manchester's wealthier residents become more affluent, the city's official homeless rates have skyrocketed by 50 percent in the last year.

Enter Not Just Soup Kitchen. Established in January 2015 by Franco Sotgiu, owner of upmarket burger joint Solita Bar and Grill in Manchester's (at times, painfully) cool Northern Quarter, the social initiative aims to hand out high-quality hot food to the hungry.

As the name suggests, this isn't a watery soup and dry bread roll operation. All food is prepared and donated by Manchester's restaurants.

"We're not aware of anyone else in the country doing soup kitchens in this way," explains Sam Jones, Not Just Soup Kitchen volunteer and digital marketer by day. "The whole idea is that it's not soup, that's the rule. It's usually a big pot of something that's easy to plate up. Maybe a curry or pastas, but one week we had 100 burritos, so it's always changing. The restaurants can do what they want, and we also ask them to provide sandwiches and fruit for people to take with them so they can have another meal later on."

So far, participating restaurant's have included Cheshire pub The Fat Loaf, Beef and Pudding, and TV chef Andrew Nutters' restaurant in Rochdale. Each week, the establishments take it in turns to prepare a different meal before heading down to Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester's city centre. No questions are asked as to who is most in need, it's a simple case of first come, first served.

The first Not Just Soup Kitchen event I go along to sees beef stew from the kitchen at Hawksmoor, one of Manchester's newest restaurant openings. On the second, popular street food purveyors Dirty Food Revolution dish out spicy chili con carne, rice, and nachos made with ingredients sourced from independent butchers Frost's.

The initiative currently feeds around 80 people, which means supply doesn't yet meet the estimated demand. "Real" figures for homelessness are notoriously difficult to get hold of and the project is run entirely by volunteers. Regardless, Jones says he is impressed with the response of the city and its restaurants.

"The thing that really struck me is that once someone has committed to doing it, they have gone the whole hog," he says. "Some bring all their own staff down, others provide more food than we actually asked for, and they have all gone that extra mile, which is amazing to see."

The scheme's customers benefit not just from a decent meal but also social interaction. Many are regulars who attend each week, helping to develop a community atmosphere. It's a far cry from the excluded anonymity that often besets those dealing with food insecurity.

"There are a few soup kitchens in town, but this is definitely different," says one man, who tells me this is his first hot meal in days. "It's easy for people to think just because you're homeless you don't know decent food but everyone has a different story behind them. Life changes fast. Ultimately, this gives us a place and time to meet and catch up with who we know, and good meals—two things a lot of people with good jobs and security seem to take for granted."

Not Just Soup Kitchen was originally intended to run for a trial period, but after this initial success, Jones hopes the program can continue. It's success is telling of the scale of food security problems currently facing Manchester, a city that recently evicted a homeless protest camp from the area around its Town Hall, partly due to complaints from the public.

"We'd like to see it grow, the more people we can feed the better, and the more restaurants involved the more food they can provide," he says. "We've had a lot of interest from outside the region, too—people asking if we can bring the idea to other parts of the UK. We can't do that at the moment due to practicalities, but if anyone wants to pick it up and run with it in other cities that would be amazing."

Given the initial approaches for restaurants to join forces with Not Just Soup Kitchen were all made via Twitter, the potential for word to spread nationwide is there. Inviting those in need to eat in one of the busiest public spaces in Manchester certainly gives a new meaning to the concept of "street food."