A Toronto vegan restaurant is paying it forward by donating a soup for every soup they sell this fall season.

Everyone loves a hearty, warming bowl of nutritious soup when the weather starts to get chilly, but sadly food isn't always accessible to everyone. Parka Food Co. decided to step in to help in light of the current state of the world.

Not only are they donating a matching quantity of delicious soup they sell, they're actually making it out of vegetable offcuts that would otherwise go to waste, including cauliflower, eggplant, onion, potato and broccoli topped with house croutons and fresh garlic oil.

"Starting from September 9th, for every soup sold we will donate a soup.  Our hearty plant-based soup will be made from vegetable offcuts that would otherwise go to compost, in order to fulfill our goal to minimize food waste and maximize food security, two causes that we are very passionate about," says owner Eric Chao.

"On a monthly basis, we'll tally how many soups were sold and donate a matching amount to a local charity or community centre. A different organization will be chosen each month to reach as many people as we can."

This month's charity is St. Felix Centre, a non-profit community centre that provides over 20,000 meals including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks 24/7 to members of marginalized groups in the city.

"COVID-19 has brought on many challenges and when we heard of the significant increase in people accessing food banks during this time, we felt compelled to do something," says Chao. 

"With our commitment to sustainability in mind and the cooler weather approaching, we decided the best way to help was to launch a sustainable community soup project!"