Every Thursday, the social studies department at Park gathers for Souper Thursday, when one or two teachers serve soup for the entire department to enjoy. Souper Thursday is more than a meetup. It’s a way to build a community for social studies teachers by eating various soups and a way for the social studies department to surpass their roles as just teachers.
According to Social studies teacher Micheal Nordean, Souper Thursday conversations are not just about the variety of soups they eat. They involve communicating through soup about different ideas and feelings, bonding while allowing teachers to explore different people’s lives and cultures, and using soup to build conversations.
“We talk about what our families like, what kinds of foods. It just leads to a lot of other conversations,” Nordean said. “So while it’s Soupy Thursday, we’re not talking about soup the whole time, we’re talking about what my kids are doing this weekend, so it just helps to lubricate the conversation.”
Social studies teacher Carly Kregness said teachers acknowledge birthdays by bringing in plenty of snacks to share amongst the teachers.
“In the Social Studies department, we celebrate different birthdays,” Kregness said. “We’ll bring in a lot of treats for whoever’s birthday it is, or we’ll bring treats into the classroom for them and stuff.”
Nordean said there are various soup options for teachers who are gut-sensitive. On the other hand, teachers who can handle regular soup are provided with rich amounts of protein and gluten.
“So every Thursday, there are two soups,” Nordean said. “Two teachers sign up on a day, generally, one of them creates some soup for those who have gut sensitivity, whereas the other one is just a regular soup, full of protein, full of gluten, so people have a choice.”
Social studies teacher Jill Merkle said their tradition offers teachers a chance to dedicate time to saying farewells to teachers and uphold respect for retirees by recording farewell videos with teachers and their students.
“Greg Goddard retired, and we, you know, like we threw a retirement party forum last year,” Merkle said. “When Miss Emma (Engebretson) left, we made a video with all our kids and teachers saying goodbye.”
According to Nordean, Bart, who founded Souper Thursday, created a way for teachers to connect on a deeper level beyond their roles in a classroom.
“What Bart started was this ability for us to communicate as humans,” Nordean said. “We’re not just teachers for this time. We can share a bit about ourselves. We share the soup. We connect with people through the love of food. You know, it’s oftentimes, our love language.”
Nordean said Souper Thursday was reduced to just the third floor because of how finite space was for teachers to be served a fair amount of soup, and he looks forward to seeing Souper Thursday develop past just one space.
“Unfortunately, we were limited to space, but I would like to see it grow so that it’s not just our third floor. We could be larger,” Nordean said. “You know, there were 100 and about 100 teachers in the building, so it’d make it difficult for two people to provide soup for all those teachers.”
