Soup has never tasted so good for Moray business students

Chicago idea adopted by Moray College students could prove a massive community hit.
Chicago idea adopted by Moray College students could prove a massive community hit.

BUSINESS STUDENTS AT Moray College UHI are set to launch a ‘crowdfunding’ initiative with a unique twist – and one that can involve the entire Moray community.

The students studying business, administration and accounting at the Elgin campus have created ‘Moray Soup’ – an idea inspired by a research group in Chicago who created InCUBATE – the set-up that explores new approaches to arts administration and funding.

It began when a group of friends in Detroit set up a dinner to try and create the right atmosphere for collaboration, empowerment and bringing together a community. While it was created to explore new art practices, it quickly expanded to include projects on land use, urban agriculture and small business setups.

Business lecturer at Moray College, Allane Hay, spotted the idea in a BBC documentary about Amy Kaheri and Detroit Soup – and decide it could be the perfect focus for his students.

Allane said: “It struck me that this might be something worth doing here in Moray and to let the students be the lead in running it so that they can learn from it and learn from others with ideas.
“The idea is that people come together to share a dinner and hear people’s ideas – everyone makes a donation and the suggested amount is £5 but anyone can contribute more if they want.

“For this, they get to listen to ideas, discuss and debate them, eat and then vote on the idea they like best. The person or people whose idea gets the most votes wins the pot of money donated at the door (less the cost of the soup ingredients).”

A planning board has been created consisting of students at varying levels of study, lecturers, senior management of the college and business and community leaders.

The first Moray SOUP will take place in Moray College UHI from 5pm on November 9 – and it is open to anyone to attend to support local entrepreneurs and community projects.

Anyone can submit ideas for consideration – but ideas must be submitted to the planning board by October 31. Ideas can be for anything from small business start-ups, school projects, art and community projects, clubs, societies and charities.

There are no parameters, with four ideas will be selected for presentation on the night.

For more information or to submit your idea for presentation, people can visit the Moray Soup website.

Moray Life 2017 – thank you for supporting insideMoray’s bid to continue providing its Community News service in 2017 – we reached our main target, but we have our limited edition of 300 calendars featuring stunning Moray images from our readers. Over half of these are already claimed through £10 pledges – claim yours now. visit our Crowdfunding Page for details.