At the Farmers Market: Organic Soup Kitchen

The summer heat did not deter market-goers as they sampled hot and hearty soup from a new farmers market vendor.

Organic Soup Kitchen (OSK) is based in Santa Barbara and the “newest kid in the farmers market block.” Find out what makes this nonprofit organization tick and it’s not just the soups.

Feeding the community

Former homebuilder and magazine publisher Anthony Carroccio founded OSK in 2009.

As executive director, Carroccio’s passion was feeding homeless individuals. The retail idea came later, as a means of supporting OSK’s programs.

Now, it’s not only the homeless who benefit. OSK also provides meals to other local nonprofit organizations based in Santa Barbara including those that cater to military veterans, the elderly and low-income pregnant women.

“It’s our way of giving back to society,” said Carroccio.

OSK also has other programs in place including a nutritional program for schools, job search assistance and a culinary training program. The latter helps train at-risk, low-income individuals in order to get employed in the hospitality industry.

Purely organic

Carroccio only uses organic local produce as much as possible whether it’s carrots for the spring carrot soup or potatoes for the French potato-leek soup.

He also makes the coconut milk from scratch, which goes into the fire-roasted yam soup and two other varieties.

“We have a good product so people keep coming back for more,” said Carroccio.

Market-goers also clamor for the other soup varieties, which include golden potato, Tuscan vegetables, vegetarian chili and ginger-carrot-almond soup. The authentic Napoli sauce is also a top seller.

Carroccio is currently working on a pesto sauce and hot sauces for distribution later in the year.

Getting their money’s worth

“For $10 a quart, consumers are getting their money’s worth,” said Carroccio. “However, for us, the soups are costly and labor-intensive to produce.”

At the onset, they looked into retail distribution, but the costs were even more prohibitive, according to Carroccio. “The stores were requiring the use of commercial canners which almost always requires the use of preservatives,” he said.

“That’s not who we are,” said Carroccio, noting their clean, organic and healthy eating thrust.

Nonprofit model

Sold directly to consumers through two farmers market locations including Calabasas, Carroccio hopes to add more locations in the coming months.

“Of course, I want to be busier,” he said, explaining that it would be ideal to sell 10 times as much as they are selling now in order to fund more programs.

He also looks forward to the day when the OSK nonprofit model can be duplicated in other communities.

In the meantime, things are looking up. “What’s more important right now is people can eat healthy food without compromising flavor,” he said.

The Calabasas Farmers Market is open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday at 23504 Calabasas Road, across the street from the Sagebrush Cantina.