Serving up soup at Good Shepherd to-go supper

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought changes to how groups are doing things.

While there have been cancellations of long running and cherished events, groups have also been creative in coming up with new options. Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Rib Lake is a prime example of this.

Normally, the parish holds a Fall Festival as one of its bigger fundraising and fellowship events. However, with the large number of people they usually have at the festival, the planning committee decided to place it on hold this year and in its place hold two raffles. One raffle was held in August.

The second raffle was held in conjunction with a togo soup supper on the Friday before the start of hunting season.

They were are able to spread everything out in the parish hall to allow for proper distancing of people checking out the raffle prizes and people could bring soup home to their families to enjoy.

The parish’s normal head cook came down with COVID-19 the week of the event, and so she had to line up another “chief cook and bottle washer” to pick up the

The crew of workers including Pearl Kauer (left) and Mary B. Thums put in a long day of making soups at Good Shepherd Catholic Church last Friday.

slack. Sharon Acker stepped in as new head cook, with helpers Pearl Kauer and Mary B. Thums to prepare all the food and they graciously stepped up to the plate.

“It is amazing how people come together to pitch in when help is needed. I think everyone is anxious to have something new and different to look forward to with so many events being cancelled,” said Mary Kauer, parish secretary.

As the first year for doing the soup-to-go, it was a learning experience for the parish and as with anything they will fine tune it for the future if they decide to hold it again.