Soup for the Soul returns live and in-person 

Bridge to Home, a local nonprofit dedicated to combating homelessness, hosted its annual Soup for the Soul fundraiser on Sunday, which drew in prominent dignitaries and community leaders.  

Those in attendance included Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, former Assemblywoman Suzette Martinez Valladares, Mayor Jason Gibbs, City Councilman Bill Miranda, City Councilwoman Marsha McLean and City Councilwoman Laurene Weste.  

Weste said Bridge to home is, and always has been, an organization the entire community can get behind.  

“The whole community is behind it, as well as Supervisor Barger and the city and our senator and our chamber of commerce, everybody in the community has been helping,” said Weste. “So we’re very proud of the work they do and we’re all grateful that we’re getting a homeless shelter built.” 

Weste is referencing Bridge to Home’s capital campaign to build a new facility on Drayton Street in Newhall, which aims to provide interim housing for approximately 60 people and eight apartments that can house 32 people.  

While an estimated time of completion of the facility is only an approximation, city officials hope to see it completed by this fall.  

Tracey Carpentier, president of Bridge to Home’s board of directors, said the effort to raise funds is a partnership between both the private and public sectors.  

“Funding for Bridge to Home is really a collaboration between public funding as well as private donors,” said Carpentier. “So we’re just so very grateful for the community to come out and support us so that we can help others go from homelessness to housing.” 

Fundraising efforts included “Buy a Brick,” which would inscribe donors’ names on a brick placed at the new facility, a live dessert auction and a tablescape drawing, which sent the lucky winner of a table home with a recipe book, gourmet soups from France, soup recipes and floral arrangements.