18 | JULY 28 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY

C

ongregation Shir 
Tikvah Sisterhood’s 
Tikkun Olam Soup 
Troupe has formed a part-
nership with the Hospitality 
House Food Bank, located in 
Commerce. 
The food bank not only 
provides food to the under-
privileged community 
three times a week, but also 
diapers, household prod-
ucts and more. Because 
of the food bank’s help, the 
Soup Troupe now provides 
its friends at Royal Oak First 
United Methodist Church 
(ROFUM) items they can use 
in their daily lunch program 
like fruit cups and individual 
crunchy snacks, and much 
more. 
The Soup Troupe, consist-
ing of seven women from 
CST Sisterhood’s Tikkun 
Olam committee, meet in the 
CST kitchen every other week 
to create a hot meal from 
donations they receive. The 
finished product is delivered 
to ROFUM for distribution to 
the homeless and underprivi-
leged. ROFUM has been feed-
ing approximately 50 people, 
five days a week for the last 
22 years.
For the six years the Soup 
Troupe has been cooking, 
they have depended on the 
ladies in the group or congre-
gants to donate items. That 

sustained them on its own 
until the Troupe received 
a cold call letter from the 
Hospitality House Food Bank 
in December 2021 that intro-
duced themselves, explained 
who they serve and men-
tioned they have extra food. 
The food bank asked if they 
would be interested, and Karen 
Sage, chair of CST Sisterhood 
Tikkun Olam, hopped on the 
opportunity immediately. 
“They’ve been providing us 
with the raw materials so to 
speak, the cans of beans and 
the fresh produce, and we do 
the prepping and cooking and 
then we give our food to the 
church,” Sage said. “And they 
also have things they donate 
that we send directly to the 
church like fruit cups, bags 
of chips and juice boxes that 
they give the guests at their 

church every day.”
Once a one-to-one rela-
tionship between the Soup 
Troupe and the church has 
now become a three-way rela-
tionship. 
“If (the food bank) has 
five pounds of turkey lunch 
meat they got from Forgotten 
Harvest, they’ll call me and 
I’ll say to hang on to it, we’ll 
be right over to pick it up. 
Then we give it to the church, 
and they use it to make their 
sandwiches. It’s just a win-
win for everybody,” Sage said. 
“Recently, we got three cases of 
tomatoes. We prep and freeze 
them so when we make chili 
or something, we have them. 
Nothing is going to waste.” 
Sage believes the “sister-
hood” name goes beyond the 
synagogue. 
“With us cooking for the last 

half a dozen years, we really 
have become like sisters,” she 
said. “
A couple of ladies have 
lost their husbands; a couple of 
them have had serious health 
issues over the last couple 
years. We cook for each other 
in times of need, and we just 
really have a tight group.”
The Soup Troupe also con-
tributes hats, scarves, hand-
sewn masks, foot warmers, 
backpacks and more to the 
folks ROFUM serves.
It means a lot to Sage and 
the Soup Troupe to be able to 
expand partnerships like this 
and further help the under-
privileged.
“No matter what your 
religious beliefs may be and 
what community you’re in, 
our basic and common goal is 
just to help those in need,” she 
said. 

Congregation Shir Tikvah 
Sisterhood partners with 
Hospitality House Food Bank.

The Soup 
Troupe

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

ABOVE: Mary Jane Faso and Sheila Henkle 
prep donated vegetables. RIGHT: Sue Korn 
and Karen Sage clean donated kale.

Soup Troupe members Sue Korn, Mary Jane Faso, Maryann Nagel, 
Anne Alden, Sheila Henkle and Karen Sage. (Joan Firestone not pictured.)

