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“People on the street are just like us,” argues Mark, 37, the coordinator of the Amsterdam Salvation Army Soup Bus. “The only difference is that they have been unlucky or hurt in some way.” Three evenings a week, Mark makes sure that the Soup Bus drives through the capital and reaches around 100 homeless people. “We distribute the most basic human needs: food, drink and love. But it is not all
sorrow and misery, we also have a chat with them and joke around.” For the past 35 years, 257,000 litres of soup and 1,500,000 litres of coffee are distributed every year. The Soup Bus also does a weekly round in Rotterdam and Zwolle to provide the homeless there with coffee, rolls, soup and blankets. And to lend a sympathetic ear. “The clients are diverse – from elderly alcoholics to lost backpackers; some
of them claim they are on their way to work. Good for them! As long as they keep dreaming their dreams, they keep their spirits up.”
Living together, sharing together The Soup Bus is a good example of a project that is supported by 50|50, a brand that was introduced by the Salvation Army in 2003. “As the advertising agency for the
Salvation Army, we were looking for new ways of reaching a broader and younger audience,” explains Harry Puts of Only, the brain behind 50|50. “For instance, young people communicate a lot through clothing. This is how the 50|50 brand was developed in 2003, with 50|50 fashion as its first product. That’s what’s great about 50|50: that you have a new way of telling the Salvation Army story and
showing that if you do things together and share things together, you will get a better, nicer society.”
50|50 fashion
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Harry explains that 50|50 fashion uses parts of discarded clothing items from Salvation Army containers to create new clothes. No two designs are ever identical: “Among 11 million kilos of clothes a year, you are bound to find something. Put the upper part of a pair of trousers and a curtain together and you have a new skirt. It just goes to show that even really old stuff, even mailbags, can be turned
into new clothes. The clothes are assembled by young people working in a sheltered workshop.”
50|50 soup After 50|50 fashion for young people and kids, and a range of accessories, 50|50 soup was introduced. “Besides clothes, the Salvation Army of course has a strong connection with soup,” Harry comments. “Their roots lie in soup, as they distribute litres and litres of soup every day to the homeless. In a way you could see soup as a splendid metaphor for neighbourly love. That’s how we developed the idea of compiling a special soup cookbook.” The book’s layout is a blend of 20 different cookery and photography styles. It was developed by Les Patrons Cuisiniers (19 Dutch top chefs) in collaboration with the Photographers Association of the Netherlands (20 photographers) who all
worked free of charge to complete the project.
With thanks to Mark Voorneveld and Harry Puts for contributions to the text
CoolCharity is an initiative of Maarten Schäfer and Anouk Pappers
Founders and Creative minds behind CoolBrands and CoolTravel.
CoolCharity is seeded online as part of the ‘Cool Transmedia Storytelling project’
