Not by Bread Alone: Soup Kitchen’s Exhibit Feeds the Human Spirit

More than 40 photojournalists from around the world donated their time and

photographs to help the Capuchin Soup Kitchen of Detroit raise money through an online auction and photo exhibit.

Photographers were asked to donate two prints that illustrate the theme of the exhibit, “Visions of the Sacred.” One print became part of an exhibit that was displayed in a show at a shopping mall, while the other went to the person who bid the most through an online auction.

To call attention to the work of the nonprofit group, which was founded by members of the Capuchin monastery in 1929, a Web site prepared for the auction and exhibit (http://www.visionsacred.org) has a special section of photographs that show a typical day at the organization, which serves meals and distributes food to low-income families. The group also operates Jefferson House, a residential treatment program for drug addicts.

Though feeding the hungry is the main task of the charity, the organization has in recent years developed numerous efforts to provide additional help to its clients. Because as many as one-third of the 50,000 meals served each month go to children, the charity also has set up a library that has more than 6,000 books for young readers. It also has hired a certified art therapist to run creative programs for kids.

Capuchin Soup Kitchen also seeks to make sure all the people it serves pay attention to the older clients. It is taking pictures of its elderly clients to hang on the organization’s walls, and asking them to record their life stories on tape so younger people can learn about their experiences.

The online photo display not only attracted attention to such programs, but also helped raise $7,000 for the group. The organization received so much positive attention from the effort that it is now at work on another online photo auction.

The Internet version of the “Visions of the Sacred” exhibit, which is still available for viewing, was produced by New Media for Nonprofits, a nonprofit group that develops interactive content for charities and foundations that help the needy or provide educational programs. Prints of the photographs showing sacred moments are hanging on the walls of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and in Jefferson House. Said Brother Vincent Reyes, pastoral director of the soup kitchen, who came up with the idea for the photo display: “We want to show the photos where the people who live and eat and recover here will be surrounded daily by artistic images of hope, inspiration, and love.”