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Start giftingThe 24-Hour Soup Kitchen
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreIt was when traveling on assignment in India that journalist Stephen Henderson first learned of soup kitchens operated by Sikh houses of worship (or gurudwaras). After volunteering for a week at the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi—which feeds 20,000 men, women, and children every day—Henderson became curious to research global gastrophilanthropy, or the very different ways in which hungry people are served free meals around the world.
When newspaper and magazine work dispatched him to places across America and abroad, Henderson would add days to his itineraries to learn about local customs of charitable cookery. This intriguing series of field reports reveals the clamor, chaos, and compassion of kitchens in places such as Iran, Israel, and South Korea, as well as those in Austin, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.
While the recipes, culinary methods, and clientele may vary, all the soul-stirring experiences share a common theme: a great way to show love to the needy is through the gift of food.
Written with a huge heart, and an even bigger appetite, these chapters—sad and funny, sometimes both—may inspire you to embark on your own acts of gastrophilanthropy.
Stephen Henderson has worked as a public relations professional and journalist since graduating from Wheaton College in 1979, and Yale Divinity School in 1987. In a highly circuitous career, he's worked on everything from Avon Books' romance novels, Arrow men's dress shirts, and Maxwell House coffee, to the Radio City Rockettes, Union Theological Seminary, and The John Templeton Foundation. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Town and Country, Food and Wine, and elsewhere.
Ever since Adam Lofbomm pressed "Record" on his Fisher-Price recorder back in 1984, he's been bringing worlds to life in words. Over the years, his passion for language inspired him to read broadly, write extensively, speak publicly, perform on-stage and on-camera, but when he stepped into the vocal booth for his first narration job in Seoul, Korea, back in 2006, all those many pieces just clicked into place. He realized then and there that voice acting was what he was made to do. Over the last eleven years working as a professional voice-over actor, Adam has had the great fortune to collaborate with some of the best publishers and organizations in the world. Whether or not Malcolm Gladwell was right when he said that ten-thousand hours will make you world-class at something, Adam did stop counting after he surpassed that milestone in 2016.