With a goal to receive community feedback, the Farmville Downtown Partnership hosted its third annual SOUP event on March 23 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with about 190 people, according to John Burton, program manager for the Farmville Downtown Partnership.
According to Burton, the SOUP program was based off a model originally from Detroit, Michigan.
“We first started three years ago with one of our volunteers,” Burton said. “We thought that it would be a great thing to enhance the community and really get a lot of community driven feedback.”
During the event, community members and teams proposed ideas for community improvement, according to Jen Cox, vice president of the Farmville Downtown Partnership’s board. The proposals were sent to the partnership ahead of time and four of the ten were picked to be presented at the event.
“We had 10 proposals this year, from those we were able to choose four,” said Cox. “They were able to present and we were able to award two grants and were pretty excited about the turnout this year.”
Out of the four proposals who presented, two received grants, according to Burton. The first place went to Central Virginia Young Authors with a grant of $1,500 and the second grant gave $1,000 toward building a butterfly garden. The money for the event and grants come from sponsors and the Farmville Downtown Partnership’s budget, according to Burton.
The soup itself was donated by Aramark at Longwood University, according to Cox.
Burton said the Farmville Downtown Partnership planned to continue holding annual SOUP events.
The proposals can come from anyone in the community, according to Burton and Cox.
“We hope that since it's such a community-driven event, we can see Longwood representation here. I would like to see more student proposals,” said Burton.
Cox added, “I think the main goal is to make sure the community comes together and feels empowered that they can help projects they want to see in our community.”
According to Cox, the event was run mostly by volunteers.
“We had a committee of about eight people, plus we had a lot of volunteers the night of to help us with set up and clean up,” said Cox. “Part of our goal with Farmville Downtown Partnership is that we’re using volunteers at lots of different events all year depending upon what you’re passionate about.”
Beyond SOUP, the Farmville Downtown Partnership tries to foster a revitalization of the town's historic downtown area and develop its "commercial and cultural heart" by hosting a variety of events throughout the year, according to its website.
The Farmville Downtown Partnership’s next events will be “Players at the Plaza,” according to Burton. Musicians will be hosted by the plaza with the train caboose by High Bridge Trail in April, May and September.
