Comprehension: Origins of Stone Soup

Stone Soup is a community initiative in a socially and economically struggling neighbourhood in Whanganui, a small city on the West Coast of the North Island. It has brought neighbours together socially every two months for the past six years. The initiative began as a response to a tragic gang-related drive up shooting, which increased tension and pressures in the community: the incidents resulted in residents moving out, removing their children from local school, and requesting transfers from Housing New Zealand to other parts of the city. Greg and Judy live locally and, as part of Te Ora Hou Whanganui, have worked with young people for 25 years. They got together in 2009 with other local people and Housing New Zealand and decided to do something positive as a neighbourhood. This group came up with the concept of "Stone Soup", which aimed to strengthen community relationships and support networks in order to help prevent violence.

Stone Soup is based on the old story of a traveller coming to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty pot. Upon his arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry visitor. The traveller fills the pot with water, drops a large stone on it, and places it over a fire in the village square. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what he is doing. The traveller answers that he is making 'stone soup', which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavour, which he is missing. The villager doesn't mind parting with just a little bit to help them out, so it gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the traveller again mentions his stone soup that hasn't reached its full potential yet. The villager hands him a carrot to help out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all. The story has traditionally been told as a lesson in co-operation, especially amidst scarcity, and in the Whanganui situation, the principle was applied to encourage ownership of the initiative within the neighbourhood. (pg 120-121)

(Taken from the brilliant book Pursuing Peace in Godzone- Christianity and the Peace Tradition in New Zealand edited by Troughton, Geoffrey  and Fountain, Philip . 2018. Victoria University Press.) 

Answer the following questions based on the text

1. Why did they start Stone Soup? (or what is the origin of Stone Soup?)

2.  Why did the people change their minds and share their food with the traveller?

3. How does the Stone Soup story connect with the Stone Soup initiative?

4. The sentences in this article are very long. Pick two long sentence and rewrite them into shorter ones using your own words.

Use the Read Write and Think Trading Card Creator to write about this place.

Use the Read Write and Think Story Cube Creator to summarise the story of Stone Soup?