PolmontSOUP Event

New community Event Happening at PCHub 

Fun PolmontSoup Event 21st of March 2026

What is PolmontSOUP?

Polmont SOUP will be a way of promoting, raising funds, and celebrating great ideas to build a bigger, better, stronger, supportive community. We will come together and enjoy a hot bowl of soup, some entertainment and help a community idea blossom.

How it will work 

PolmontSOUP will bring people together to make good things happen in our community. PCHub volunteers will host this form of community crowdfunding event to support new ideas and exciting projects in our community. Everyone is invited, you’ll receive tasty soup, bread, entertainment, watch a minimum of four projects, give a presentations then vote on your favourite

We like to keep our events at the hub free to maintain our inclusiveness. At present, we plan to ask a donation of £5 for the voting coins, with all money raised from the coins going to the project

Each presenter will have four minutes to share their project idea, followed by four questions from attendees. After the presentations, everyone casts their vote, and the project or idea with the most votes takes home the Big pot of money. We will announce how much when we know that amount!

 

Where did the Idea come from?

PolmontSOUP is based on the Mossley near Manchester soup events, which got their idea from the Detroit SOUP model of community-based development through crowdfunding, creativity, collaboration, democracy, trust and fun.

SOUP offers a space where people can connect. The rest is up to attendees, but wonderful things can happen when people come together. From its origins in the USA, the simple concept of SOUP has taken root in towns and cities across the globe.

Here at the hub, we are going to host an inaugural event, which may go on to be regular events or not? We’ve stuck pretty close to the original SOUP model, but added a few extra ingredients. 

Supporters and inspiration

Our chairman and sustainability champion, Kenny, has been attending regular green participatory budgeting webinars through his affiliation with Jez Hall at shearedfutures https://sharedfuturecic.org.uk/green-pb-organisers-network/

This Event will be a Green participatory budgeting event to empower our communities through choosing how the community's money should be spent in our community, This initial inaugural event sprang from a conversation between Kenny and Jez as a way to spend some money towards promoting Green participatory budgeting events nationally, we at PCHub have some funds, Jez from shared future is also willing to help with a small fund, between the hub and sharedfutures, we will have enough money to pay for the soup marketing and puting on the event, Jez is also giving us his knowledge and time

we at PCH dont know how it will go after this first event, but here is what Jez recommends at future events  (if we choose to hold future events)

- Try to secure some funding to kickstart the initial events, as this makes it worthwhile for the applicants. A budget of about £500 per round would be ideal. I’ve noticed that in Mossley, every group selected to pitch is guaranteed a reward—typically £100 each. So, if there are four projects and we start with a £500 pot, each group would receive at least £100, while the winning group would earn a minimum of £200 plus any additional money collected at the door. Mossley recommends a £5 donation for entry. 

(and experience shows many people put in more than a £5 note.)

Winners come back to future Mossley SOUP events to report on their project’s progress. And these are all their past winners:
https://soup.the-vale.co.uk/about/

 

Jez