Our Values Guide Us
Proud to Offer Fair Food Certified Gazpachos
In our mission to make a difference, we're proud to become the first Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) brand to obtain Fair Food Program certification on select products. All of our Tomato and Spicy Tomato Gazpachos are made with Fair Food tomatoes!
Digging Deep into the Supply Chain
Far too many farmworkers in our country are subjected to outrageous abuse — from gender-based violence to wage theft, and even forced labor — every day. But the good news is that there is a solution - the Fair Food Program. We're excited to be the first CPG brand to partner with the Fair Food Program, a groundbreaking social responsibility program created by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to combat farmworker exploitation.
The Fair Food Program protects the human rights of farmworkers and is enforced and monitored by the workers themselves. Growers gain an effective risk management system, a more stable workforce, and a means to distinguish their product in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Participating retailers can rely on a comprehensive approach to social responsibility that not only helps protect their brands from the reputational risks of supply chain labor abuses, but aims to prevent those abuses from happening in the first place.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, farmworkers, despite being essential workers, have been treated as expendable. There have been multiple prosecutions for modern-day slavery, including one 24-defendant case in the Southeast involving more than 71,000 farmworkers. Meanwhile, the same law enforcement agencies responsible for prosecuting these cases have praised the unique effectiveness of the Fair Food Program in preventing them, and encouraged more food companies to join. Soupergirl is proud to do its part.
Our Farming Network
We work with suppliers that respect the earth and their laborers. We look beyond certifications to support farms that recognize the humanity behind every tomato and squash.
Team Soupergirl
A safe, respectful, and just working environment is a right not a privilege at Soupergirl. From health care to sick leave and paid time off, every team member is valued and treated fairly and respectfully.
Our Community
We are deeply committed to working with our neighbors to fight food insecurity. We’ve teamed up with partners such as the DC Food Project, Yad Yehuda, World Central Kitchen, and Food Rescue US to work towards ending hunger in our neighborhood and beyond.
Our Planet
We compost, source from sustainable farms, are certified plastic neutral, use wind energy, fight food waste, cook plant-based food - basically everything in our power to help combat climate change. Know that with every bowl of Soupergirl food you enjoy, you’re making a great choice for the planet.
Our Consumers
If you don’t find an ingredient in Soupermom’s kitchen, you won’t find it in our soup. No PhDs required to read our labels! Just simple, hand-crafted, all natural, extraordinarily healthy food cooked with love.
Treat others as you would like to be treated. In our view - the word “others” includes people, air, water, animals, you, me - all of us.
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Encouraging Local Businesses
Our local purchases from farms and businesses help our region thrive and grow. We also proudly source many ingredients from smaller, women-owned businesses.
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Plastic Neutral
To be clear, we hate plastic – with a passion. Soupergirl is officially certified Plastic Neutral. We know it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s a start as we try to find a way around our plastic use.
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Clean Energy
Sourcing clean electricity is a great place to reduce one’s carbon footprint. We’ve partnered with Arcadia to source much of our energy from the sun!
Our Awesome Partners
Questions? We’ve got answers
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Soupergirl has always prided ourselves in providing a safe and respectable working environment. During Covid, we kicked everything into high gear. Once we realized that we were asking our team members to defy CDC orders, leave their homes, and keep cooking healthy food for a locked-down country, we implemented an array of efforts to keep everyone safe and secure. Efforts included:
Implementing a fully subsidized health insurance plan for all full time staff members. We believe that health insurance is a right, not a privilege. Period.
We brought in a disease specialist to test our team weekly for Covid. We were able to prevent dangerous outbreaks in our facilities because of our rigorous testing protocol.
Obtained K95 masks and face shields (not easy at the start!) for everyone.
Provided additional masks and thermometers for all team members to take home and use with their families.
Pulled our team off of public transportation and provided bonuses for car-pools.
Provided additional food for our team to enable them to reduce shopping trips and time in the supermarket.
In addition, everyone at Soupergirl is provided with paid time off, sick leave, and a living wage. As we grow, we will continue to expand the benefits that we can provide to the Souper team.
What does Soupergirl do to create a safe and fair working environment? -
We don’t want to pull the curtain back too much, but… a lot of large food companies use frozen, pre-chopped vegetables to “cook” (toss in a vat with some salt??). Soupergirl, on the other hand, knows many of our farmers. We know how our vegetables were grown, how the laborers were treated, and how the food made its way to us. Once it arrives at Soupergirl, our team peels, chops, de-seeds, and gets cooking. That pumpkin won’t peel itself! Hand-crafted means literally peeled, chopped, stirred, cooked - by hand!
What does hand-crafted mean? -
If you didn’t know, we hate plastic, and we’re proud to say Soupergirl is now certified Plastic Neutral by rePurpose Global. This means for every product we sell, we are donating a percentage towards vetted programs that will collect and recycle as much plastic waste from the environment as we use in our packaging and operations. In addition to reducing our plastic use wherever possible, this partnership with rePurpose Global allows us to fund cutting-edge recycling, support ethical wages for marginalized waste workers in India, and ultimately reduce plastic leakage into landfills and waterways. By doing so, we are proud to announce that every Soupergirl purchase will now carry a Net Zero Plastic Footprint. Learn more about our Plastic Neutral Guarantee at https://repurpose.global/. To be clear, this is just a step. Our goal is to become plastic-free as soon as possible. Stay tuned for updates!
What’s Plastic Neutral? -
Amazing question! Responsible sourcing is one of our driving values. We work with a number of small, sustainable farms around the Washington, DC area including Garners Produce, Licking Creek, Lancaster Farm Coop, and more. We also have partnered with an amazing, female led company called Full Harvest that helps us source distressed produce that would have ended up in a landfill! We have some exciting news coming out soon about sourcing soon (hint - we’re going DEEP!).
We also work with a number of values focused, women-owned, local brands when it comes to other ingredients. Highlights include: Our organic quinoa and extra virgin olive oil comes from Simpli - an amazing, DC area, woman-owned company. Our tahini is made by Soom, a Philadelphia based company owned by three sisters (who happened to go to the same high school as Soupergirl!). Loving our calzones, empanadas, croutons, and challah? The dough is make by Sunflower Bakery, an amazing Rockville, MD based organization that provides job training and employment opportunities for individuals with learning challenges.
From where does Soupergirl source their ingredients and produce? -
We’ve partnered with Arcadia to reduce our carbon footprint by using wind-generated power in our flagship location in Takoma. Also, we’ve partnered with Compost Cab, a Washington, DC based business that collects food scraps all over the city and turns them into high quality soil for area farmers. To put things in perspective - Soupergirl processes THOUSANDS of pounds of butternut squash per week in the winter. We end up with hundreds of pounds of seeds, scraps, and peels. Rather than wrapping everything in plastic and dumping them into a landfill (terrible for the earth!), we compost them, creating a circular system! To learn more about the benefits of composting, visit the EPA’s website.
How is Soupergirl helping to reduce carbon emissions? -
Food insecurity has only grown across the country in the wake of the pandemic. Soupergirl has partnered with a number of area organizations to help ensure that everyone in our community has a warm meal to eat at the end of every day. We’re particularly proud of our work that provides healthy meals to area children.
Soupergirl donates hundreds of units of soup to our neighbors in need each week. Partners include: the DC Food Project (providing food to at risk students and their families), Francis on the Hill (working to assist our neighbors in need in Columbia Heights) as well as Yad Yehuda (an organization providing food assistance to our kosher neighbors in need).
How is Soupergirl helping to fight food insecurity?