‘It was a broken city, and I was pretty broken myself.’
Amy Kaherl, 34, found herself back home in Michigan in 2008, the year her mother passed away after battling cancer for 14 years. Kaherl had left California where she attended graduate school at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. In search of studying connection and meaning in everyday experiences after returning home, Kaherl found the ability to do that in Detroit. She founded Detroit SOUP with a group of women in 2010. Detroit SOUP is a program that allows people in the Detroit community to fund creative projects through monthly potluck dinners. Participants pay a suggested $5 donation for soup, salad and bread, and then vote for their favorite proposal. Since its launch, Detroit SOUP has raised $119,000 for local projects.