January is National Soup Month and here locally, tickets are on sale for Reno Soup Week, a fundraiser to benefit STEP2, a local nonprofit that provides long-term treatment for women struggling with addiction.
"Unfortunately, addiction is something that we'll probably never get rid of," said Cheree Boteler with STEP2. "And what we do at STEP 2 is a very holistic process, we're all about wraparound services for the women and children that come to our community. And they want to be better, and they want to strive to do more, and our community just rallies around that; we have an amazing community that supports what we do."
When you buy tickets for soup week, you get a mug to try homemade soups at locations all over town.
"We're serving an amazing housemade sausage, kale and potato soup," said Jade Bogan, owner of Grafted Whiskey & Wine Bar in the Village at Rancharrah. "We love soup week, we love STEP2, we love the program, we love what we do."
Grafted has been a supporter since the beginning. Donating to the cause was an easy decision.
"It's easy for a restaurant but also for me personally," Bogan said. "It holds a lot of value. "I've lived with addiction and it's not the just person that's an addict affected, it's everybody. Everybody that loves them, everybody in their sphere is affected by it. So I'm just a firm believer in the work that STEP2 is doing."
All of the proceeds from the week go back to STEP2 to help make lasting changes.
"We have 20 residential beds and 25 transitional housing beds," Boteler said. "So ideally, we love women and their children to be on our campus for a year or more and just to really have the opportunity to have a safe location to really make solid changes in their life."
And here, a simple bowl of soup can go a long way.
"It's really one of those things where you can build a community around a bowl of soup," Boteler said. "We're excited about that, we're excited to introduce the community to locations that maybe they haven't been to before or to go back and try something new that is special for that week."
Grafted has been in business for a little more than two years and giving back has always been part of the business plan. She says other business owners in the Village at Rancharrah feel the same way.
"These are my neighbors, they have become my friends, we do life together, we do a lot of community-based events together, we raise money for charities together," Bogan said. "We've become a tight-knit family."
Reno Soup Week runs January 21-January 28, and tickets usually sell out a few weeks in advance. More information: https://renosoupweek.com/
