As Lasse Sorensen prepares to launch Season 4 of acclaimed series Food Is Love, the master chef has another mission in mind: He and Food Is Love Productions Inc. have joined forces with John Michel’s Soulcial Kitchen and Currency of Caring program to serve the underserved in the St. Louis metro area.
A retired Air Force general, Michel has established food trucks and restaurants in the Metro East, including a dining complex in Swansea, Illinois, and Flock Food Truck Park & Bar in downtown Alton. Michel’s Dignified Dining program, which provides free meals to underserved communities via food trucks, has also served over 13,000 meals to date.
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Emphasizing the community-driven nature of their new initiatives, the chef and the general plan on collaborating with volunteers, donors, and partners across the region. “This is for the greater good. It’s a higher purpose and will make the community richer,” Sorensen says. “Food can be a catalyst for change.”
Together, they have planned a series of events over the next two months to help address food insecurity. Among the local projects are the Love Thy Neighbor free food truck initiative, the Food on the Move free mobile pantry, and the Produce Blessing Box initiative.
Despite being from different backgrounds, the two men found common ground and started planning future joint ventures not long after Sorensen featured Michel on a Food Is Love segment about food trucks. “We really connected with our passion for serving others,” Sorensen says. “There is no greater feeling than feeding people. It’s our responsibility as chefs to use this platform.”
Sorensen finds that Michel’s military training in logistics and organization complements his culinary experiences. “Food is culture and connection,” Sorensen says. “It’s a natural alignment in our mission to merge our platforms.”
After operating fine-dining restaurant Tom’s Place, in De Soto, Illinois, for 25 years, Sorensen closed the restaurant a year ago. He and his wife, Mary Jane, plan to relocate to Alton. He is from Copenhagen, Denmark, and his family is culinary royalty; his father was the king’s pastry chef. He spent years working in restaurants around the globe.
The chef and general are in talks with attorney and developer John Simmons to make Alton a culinary destination and are inspired by the Mississippi River culture. Michel says Simmons’ outlook on possibilities and his belief in transformation is inspiring. “His vision aligns with ours, and we can be part of great things together,” Michel says.
Once Sorensen fell in love with Southern Illinois for its ‘peace and quiet,’ his focus shifted to education—coaxing people to try new things, promoting healthy eating, and discovering what makes this region unique.
Among his goals is restoring enthusiasm for working in the hospitality industry; they are currently developing a Food is Love Hospitality University, with an emphasis on customer service.
“We want to be really good about feeding people but also about hiring people,” Sorensen says.
The Background
Several years ago, Michel asked Sorensen to join the Currency of Caring mission while taking a food truck to a Little Sisters of the Poor location in North St. Louis. (It has since closed). Sorensen served bowls of his seafood gumbo and New England clam chowder, along with rosemary-garlic rolls, to unhoused and struggling St. Louisans that day and saw the smiles that his efforts brought. “Soups are heartwarming, wonderful soup,” Sorensen recalls. “It was powerful.”
After some time had passed, he and his wife were driving to a destination when he took a shortcut and wound up in an alley, where a man wrapped in a blanket approached their car. The man looked at Sorensen, and his eyes widened: Aren’t you that chef that was at Little Sisters of the Poor? You served seafood gumbo? I had always wanted to try seafood gumbo. “He wanted to give me a hug,” Sorensen recalls now. “I thought I was going to be mugged, and I got hugged. This totally changed my life.”
Afterward, he was on board with joining Michel’s efforts. “The joy of helping others surprised me more than anything. I had been a skeptic and became a totally new person,” Sorensen says. “[Michel] snagged me after it opened my heart.”
The partners believe in the potential social impact of their efforts, especially in healthy outcomes through education. They not only provide free consulting to restaurateurs in Alton, but they also offer educational training and entrepreneur development through a food truck academy and apprenticeship. In partnership with Benedictine College, Soulcial Solutions offers a comprehensive, turnkey entrepreneur development and food truck apprenticeship. Michel says they hope to reach people living in under-resourced areas, as well as U.S. military veterans looking to improve their futures for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Michel also established a Dignified Dining program, in which donors can fund a meal by paying for a coin, known as Currency of Caring. When 100 coins are collected, they provide that many free meals to a designated neighborhood, where a food truck arrives to dispense meals.
Among other efforts to address food insecurity in the area, the St. Louis Area Foodbank‘s Food on the Move trailer will also debut in Alton on July 26. The free mobile food bank will serve Swansea and Alton on the final Friday of every month except December, January, and February. It provides a host of staple products without verification of income and no requirement to be enrolled in SNAP or EBT. A collaboration involving the St. Area Louis Food Bank, Food Is Love, Soulcial Kitchen, Alton Forward, Theodora Farms, and Challenge Unlimited will also launch in August to package and deliver 25 pounds of fresh produce and recipes in boxes to underserved neighborhoods in the Metro East. The goal is to create and distribute more than 500 free produce boxes by December 31.
Overall, Michel and Sorensen hope to provide opportunity in all that they do. “This can be a regional effort to inspire and uplift,” Michel says.
Season 4 of Food Is Love will resume in late September and be available via Amazon Prime, FOX2, and YouTube. (Among other chefs and restaurateurs, the new season will feature Danny Meyer and David Slay, two restaurant icons with St. Louis roots.) And to learn more about Soulcial Kitchen’s Currency of Caring and other programs, visit soulcialkitchen.com.
