Kerry Hoffman spent a day sharing soup and sandwiches with people living on the street and that experience led to the establishment of Souper Troopers, a level 1 B-BBEE contributor, registered NPO (and soon PBO, too) that aims to restore dignity to homeless people and reintegrate them into society, thereby achieving its purpose of eradicating homelessness.

Souper Troopers holds regular gatherings together with volunteers, both homeless and homefull.

We’ve built up relationships of trust and mutual respect with our homeless Troopers, many of whom run the events with us. In fact, our recent events have been managed largely by our homeless volunteers, whom we affectionately call Troopers or Troops.

Some help in the kitchen, others give haircuts, and many help with keeping an eye out, making sure everything runs smoothly. These ‘socials’ give homeless people dignity, fun and a chance to feel and be seen as human beings rather than ‘vagrants’.

Our aim is to set up social enterprises to employ Troopers and provide income for Souper Troopers. We have just launched our Souper Market, a shop selling beautiful handmade goods (jewellery and glass products) made by the Troops.

We will train more and more Troops to make these products and sell at craft markets too. Future plans include a Souper Cafe, Souper Salon and Souper Style Outlet.