Southern Alberta students chow down on hearty bowls of stone soup

It’s known that too many cooks will spoil the broth, but Glenbow Elementary School decided to change that mentality with their annual Stone Soup Day.

On Oct. 6, Glenbow Elementary students harvested the bounties from their communal garden on the other side of the school field, before cooking up a delicious soup with a key ingredient – stones.

The idea behind Stone Soup Day comes from the traditional European folktale of the same name which involves three hungry strangers who convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food to make a meal that everyone shares. The story serves as a moral for readers to understand the value of sharing.

The community endeavour has taken place for 10 years at Glenbow Elementary, and has become a staple for students and teachers who participate in the yearly event.

Students start the process in spring, when teachers, students, and families get together to clean out the garden boxes and plant seeds. Over the summer, when school is out for vacation, families will routinely drop by and water the plants.

When fall rolls around, students harvest the vegetables and each class makes their own delicious pot of soup.

Every student had the chance to eat a hearty bowl of soup which had a variety ingredient including potatoes, carrots, and beets.

“Some [ingredients] are from the store and some are from the garden,” Grade 1 student Micah said Thursday.

Micah enjoyed the soup so much he confirmed it was good enough to go back for seconds and left his stomach full for the rest of the day before returning home.

“My favorite part of the soup was the carrots,” he said.

Ms. Boukall, a Grade 1 teacher at Glenbow Elementary, says the event brings the students and community closer together, much like the story it’s based on.

“We all follow the messaging in [the story] Stone Soup of coming together, generosity and help,” Boukall said. “You can accomplish big things if everyone comes together.”

Stone Soup Day has become a long-standing event that is popular with students and faculty. As a teacher, Boukall is proud to see her students harvest and prepare the ingredients for the meal every year.

“I just think it’s a great celebration of the community that everyone gets to celebrate together,” Boukall said. “We’ve worked so hard with planting, watering, harvesting and the teamwork involved.”