Jusst Sooup Ministries celebrates 25th anniversary

For the last quarter century, the Rev. Dale Dunning has lived by the motto that she frequently cites: “If you love me, feed my sheep.”

Dunning’s Jusst Sooup Ministries celebrated its silver anniversary of feeding the Cape Region’s less fortunate Sept. 21. In her typical Dale Dunning style, she came dressed for the occasion wearing an airbrushed hat and pants with her ministry’s name on them, with a matching red blazer and red sneakers.

Dunning founded Jusst Sooup as a soup kitchen, and she remembered times when she struggled with a lack of equipment and money. She recalled having to clean houses just to buy Crock-Pots to make soup. 

The big turning point for the ministry was in 2011 when the ABC show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” brought to life the Jusst Sooup ranch at the corner of Route 9 and Cool Spring Road near Milton. The ranch included a home for Dunning, her husband, Ken, and their family. It has included a commercial-style kitchen for Dunning to cook soup. Later, the property was designated as a church and came to include a little chapel, a gazebo for outdoor events and, eventually, a building for adult education services. 

“I started with a pot and a hot plate,” Dunning said. “It was so humble that I don’t think you could even call it humble.”

She said that operating Jusst Sooup has taught her to be grateful and humble, as she sees so many people who are in unfortunate circumstances who are grateful for the hot meals she provides.

“It teaches you to love people,” Dunning said. “Everybody deserves to be loved. When you come in here, you come into a family. Some of them come in, they’ve messed things up [or] they’ve burned bridges. I don’t care what you’ve done. That’s what we do. We treat people with kindness.”

Dunning said she has fallen in love with her work – she still manages much of the cooking on site – and she sees people who are desperate and in bad places, and has a real desire to help them out.

Since the pandemic, Dunning said she has seen more and more people who come to Jusst Sooup for food, despite having jobs, because they have other financial obligations. She said that is one of the reasons she founded the adult school, to help give those who come to the ministry educational tools to improve their lives. 

As for the future of Jusst Sooup, one of Dunning’s big goals is to eventually have a shelter for the region’s homeless population. 

“I know I can help some of those people,” she said. “Meet people where they are.”