I Loved This Local Stone Soup Event in Cortland!

Samii, Clarkson, and I are visiting my parents in Cortland, located in often-chilly-or-snowy Upstate New York. I spent much of my high school and college years there, so it is fun to return and see what is the same versus what is different anytime we make it out there. One local event I was told about by some friends of ours was just fantastic when we attended yesterday. It was the Community Outreach Picnic Stone Soup Event, and it involved various agencies in the town (Police, Firefighters, non-profits such as Access to Independence and the LGBTQ Center) having booths and a ton of restaurants in town donating soup and bread. The event was totally free (folk could donate money if wanted, but it was completely optional) and had these awesome mugs with a spoon attendees could eat out of (or Styrofoam cups and plastic spoons if preferred):

There were free books for kids that told the Stone Soup tale and they did a story-time for everyone too, here is a picture of the one we got for Clarkson:

A big long table was present and it was an awesome way for the community to come together, share some food, and unite together. It was the first-ever time Cortland had held their version of this and it was extremely well-attended and enjoyable. I could picture such a thing working great for a neighborhood so people can get to know each other. We had a fantastic time at the Community Outreach Picnic Stone Soup Event and hope if/when it happens again we'll be in Cortland for it--plus I'll encourage our home neighborhood/city to do something similar as well to foster togetherness.