GRAND FORKS – The community of Hatton, North Dakota, is holding its eighth annual “Soup’s On for Hunger” fundraiser Sunday, April 6, to benefit the Northlands Rescue Mission.
The event, which includes a silent auction of more than 50 items and a bake sale, runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hatton Community Center. The auction will close at 12:30 p.m.
Hatton, a community of about 700 in Traill County, is about 40 miles southwest of Grand Forks. It is the birthplace of 20th century Arctic explorer and pilot Carl Ben Eielson.
Members of several area churches and others come together to host a free-will offering meal. The silent auction will include more than 50 items from businesses and families in the Hatton area, as well as some Grand Forks businesses, said Faye Duncan, of Hatton, one of the organizers.
Five or six kinds of soup, including vegetable-beef, a gluten-free soup and vegetable soup for vegetarians, will be served, Duncan said. “My daughter-in-law’s cousin from Jamestown is bringing knoephla soup.”
“We aim to please everybody,” she said.
The churches, which provide the soups, bread and bars, include St. John’s Lutheran in Hatton; Sharon Lutheran in Sharon, North Dakota; Beaver Creek Lutheran, rural Hatton; and Holmes United Methodist, rural Reynolds, Duncan said. Some members of Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, Mayville, are also participating.
An area woman who raises chickens has donated 12 dozen eggs for egg salad sandwiches.
“It really gets to be a community event,” Duncan said.
Organizers have also received grants from Thrivent Financial to buy meat and cheese for the fundraiser. Hatton’s Goose River Bank and Community Credit Union have donated paper products.
She and a fellow teacher Donalee Strand started the fundraiser to support the mission.
“We began talking about how to help the hungry and homeless,” Duncan said. The event has been held annually, except for two years during the COVID pandemic.
“We’ve raised quite a bit of money over the years,” she said.
According to Matthew Collings, communications coordinator for Northlands Rescue Mission, Hatton has a special connection with the Mission, whose clients were sheltered there during the Flood of ‘97.
The fundraiser is “well attended,” Collings said, and, each year, has generated a few thousand dollars for the Mission.
The money is used for sheltering clients, which includes providing a bed; locker; daily meals; and access to showers, clothing and laundry facilities.
“We try to make sure that a person’s basic needs are completely met when they come into the shelter,” Collings said. “That opens them up to working on longer-term goals like finding work or housing.”
The Northlands Rescue Mission is “very grateful to all of the churches, organizations and families in Hatton who help make this critical part of our mission possible,” he said.