Winthrop Court will see improvements to the look of its community this summer thanks to a grant received at Soup Ottawa's first community micro-grant dinner.
Almost 100 guests gathered and paid $10 entry at the door for a bowl of soup and an evening of pitches about different community projects, including a seed-sharing program, a video game programming business for children, a program to teach high schoolers about sustainable fashion, a storytelling project about Attawapiskat's water crisis, and a healthy meal supplement business whose profits would support disabled female entrepreneurs.
At the end of the night, guests voted for their favourite project. Winthrop Community House's community beautification project, Keep Winthrop Beautiful, took the prize: the $970 in entry fees raised that evening.
Soup Ottawa is the local chapter of Sunday Soup, an international network of micro-grant initiatives that raise money through participatory dinners.
Centretown News spoke with Soup Ottawa founder Dan Monafu, Keep Winthrop Beautiful project lead Denise Read, and guests to learn more about the Ottawa chapter's inaugural dinner.