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CORRECTION, 9:43 a.m.: After this story was published, Carr reached out to clarify that Humboldt Soup’s On was cofounded by Jaime Doyle, who made the first pot of soup, named the group and was instrumental in establishing it as a nonprofit. Doyle is no longer involved in the organization, Carr said.

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Arcata resident Jan Carr raised 10 kids — three birth children and seven adoptees — and once they had all left the nest, she figured she was ready for some down time. 

“I bought a house — little, tiny house — for myself, and I thought, ‘I’m going to read and drink tea and hike and that’s it,” she told the Outpost in a recent interview. “It never happened.”

Instead, without ever really planning to, Carr launched a nonprofit that, over the past two years, has provided nearly 40,000 meals to unhoused Humboldt County residents. She’s the executive director of Humboldt Soup’s On, which has a team of roughly 45 volunteers who serve hot meals to between 50 and 60 unhoused Arcata residents every single day, seven days a week. 

In a phone conversation on the eve of the organization’s second birthday, Carr told us about the impetus for launching it, the personal connections she has forged and the community support that has allowed Humboldt Soup’s On to flourish.

The logo for Humboldt Soup’s On.

It began, she said, with herding cats. Or trapping them, actually. Carr has long been involved in animal rescue efforts, and in 2023 she was volunteering with Arcata House Partnership to help trap feral cats. These captured kitties would then be spayed and neutered for the sake of population control. 

In the fall of 2023, she partnered with Redwood Pals on a plan to spay and neuter all the loose dogs in the Valley West area, too. Eventually she and her fellow volunteers managed to collect and fix all the strays they could find in Arcata and Eureka. 

“And that was really the focus for a short time, actually, because once we started on that, it was really clear that humans were struggling terribly,” Carr said. She remembers seeing homeless folks rummaging for food in a big dumpster in the parking lot of Arcata House Partnership. Soon she learned that a group of about 40 people were living in two makeshift camps hidden among the foliage in Valley West.

Carr initially assumed that these folks were receiving services, but after checking with local nonprofits and speaking with the people themselves, she learned that they weren’t. She panicked, overwhelmed by the knowledge that so many people were going hungry each day and huddling through the cold, rainy nights under flimsy tarps and tree branches.

“I got to be friendly with these people, and I was developing relationships with them, and I was, it’s just … their stories were … .” She struggled to find the words. “I mean, I was losing sleep over this. It was terrible. … I get a little choked up even talking about it now.”

She remembers talking with an administrator at Arcata House Partnership who said these folks had simply fallen through the cracks. There’s just not enough housing, not enough food, not enough resources. This person suggested to Carr, half joking, that she should adopt them, like she had with all those kids over the years. 

Carr chuckled at this memory. “I laugh about it now, and I laughed about it then,” she said. “But within a week, that’s really what happened.”

Determined to help these hungry people, she started buying pre-made deli items from Costco and delivering them to a few of the campers. She also enlisted their help in trapping feral kittens.

A woman named Jamme (pronounced “jammy”) was among the unhoused campers at the time. (In a phone interview, she declined to offer her last name, reasoning that there can’t be many locals with that name.) Jamme remembers seeing Carr offering various items to unhoused folks and then, one Sunday, seeing her out trapping cats.

“It was kind of intriguing,” Jamme recalled. “I wanted to know more: ‘How come this lady cares so much?’”

Carr, meanwhile, had realized that she couldn’t just feed three or six people at a time, not when the need was so much larger. 

Jan Carr on a recent outing to help feral cats in Arcata.

“There were at the time, gosh, 40-ish” unhoused people camping in the area, she said. “And so the only thing I could think of was to network on social media. I felt like my community had no idea they were there. I mean, we all see people clearly on the streets, with their little signs. Or we see them walking the streets. But to see them all together — and that many. The suffering that I saw at the time … I didn’t even see tents. They had tarps if they were lucky. It was horrifying to me.”

As far as she could tell, the only food they could get was stolen or pulled out of a dumpster or trash can. She started asking people if she could take their photos and post them online. Why? “Because I wanted my community to know they were there,” she said. “I really felt like nobody knew. Nobody knew how many were there and their struggles.”

Within days Carr started hearing from friends who wanted to help. A former cook suggested making a big pot of soup and feeding as many of the homeless campers as they could.

“It was on Sunday,” Carr said. “It was on November 12, 2023, and we went into the Ray’s shopping center, and by god, like 25 people came. They brought their dogs, and I was able to talk to them about spaying and neutering their dogs. So it was wonderful. It was so fun, and it was wonderful. So then we just thought, ‘Well, heck! If we can do this once. Let’s do it again! Let’s do it on Wednesday! And then let’s do it on Friday! And very quickly, I had a team of about 10 [volunteers]. And within, oh my gosh, I would say three weeks at most we were feeding these people seven days a week.”

Jamme was amazed.

“I don’t know how but she did it: She started feeding everybody,” she said. “Winter was about to happen, and she got clothes donated because she felt the need, and she knew that eating was the biggest issue.”

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Carr had yet to form a nonprofit organization, but the Presbyterian Church of Arcata reached out after seeing some of her Facebook posts and volunteered to serve as a temporary fiscal sponsor. Carr also reached out to Coast Central Credit Union regarding a grant opportunity. The folks there said she wasn’t technically eligible until she secured legal nonprofit status, but they were supportive of her efforts so they gave her $5,000 anyway, she said.

“That was the boost we really needed,” Carr said. “And as soon as we became a nonprofit, we rented a commercial kitchen.”

The all-volunteer crews — roughly 98 percent of which are retired women, according to Carr — feed as many as 60 people every day of the week, and since November of 2023 they haven’t missed a single day, Carr said.

Jamme, who is now employed and housed, said Humboldt Soup’s On has been transformative.

“It means a lot to people to know they’re gonna have food, warm food, and that there are people behind that who put love into the food,” she said. “It gives them hope. It gives them value. It gives them dignity as a human being.”

And Carr, in particular, has impacted people on a deep level, according to Jamme.

“No matter who it is, she’ll give them a hug,” she said. “She is an amazing person, really. She goes over and above for humans. … It builds self esteem. … She’s just a really special woman. If anyone needs any kind of award out here, she deserves it.”

As you might expect, Humboldt Soup’s On hasn’t been universally welcomed by neighbors. For a while the group faced pushback from Arcata officials, who were receiving complaints from businesses in the Valley West neighborhood.

Carr said she understands their perspective. “Nobody wants 60 unhoused people in their yard or next to their business,” she said. “I do understand it. But it became really difficult for us to find a place to feed these people. Very difficult.”

She’s heard people say the same things to hear about homeless people as they say about feral cats: If you don’t feed them, they’ll go away.

“Well, that’s not true,” Carr said. “These humans will not go away. Some of them have lived there for years, in Valley West and Arcata, and they will just be hungry or they will steal. … They say to me, ‘It’s so nice that we don’t have to steal anymore.’”

Eventually, Humboldt Soup’s On moved its operations into an unincorporated part of the county, and Carr said that the county government has been very supportive and kind. 

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) told the Outpost that Humboldt Soup’s On is the first and only group in the county to be registered as a Limited Service Charitable Food Operation with DHHS Public Health’s Division of Environmental Health.

“The program is amazing,” DHHS Director Connie Beck said. “They have more volunteers than any little program I’ve seen and get donations from many community members and local entities. Jan [Carr] is also very aware of the services DHHS provides and often directs the folks she interacts with to contact us. Her program is amazing.”

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Carr and her fellow volunteers have gotten to know the people they feed each day. It’s not like a food line, she said. “It’s always been very social. We are friends with these people. We know what shoe size they wear. We know who likes hot sauce in their soup. We are very close to them, and it’s the same core group of people for the last two years.”

Some have mental health issues or are otherwise unable to hold down a job. Jamme, who is now the outreach director for the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction (HACHR), said there are “several different layers” at play in these camps, from addiction disorders and dual diagnoses to personal tragedies and more. 

Her own husband recently overcame a serious drug addiction only to require hospitalization from the effects of withdrawal and years of heavy use. 

“When my husband was in the hospital — this how incredible [Carr] is — she came up to his room brought me the most amazing food package for my daughter and I, so many good snacks you don’t think you need when you’re in the ICU, [plus] a personal card to all three of us even though my husband was in a coma.”

Carr and her fellow volunteers help people navigate social services, which often involves getting them new government-issued I.D. so they can collect social security. Humboldt Soup’s On has helped several people get housing through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Once a year, she said, everyone served by Humboldt Soup’s On gets a new sleeping bag, and the camps get new tarps and tents.

One camper expressed a strong desire to work, so volunteers arranged to buy him a brand new lawnmower, a weed eater, leaf blower and other tools. 

“And he just started doing neighbors’ yards,” Carr said. “He started doing the trailer park, and pretty soon — within, I want to say six months — he bought a truck! … It’s a really beautiful red truck, and he’s so proud.”

Humboldt Soup’s On is entirely supported by volunteers and donations. They rent a kitchen from the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Jacoby Creek, and purchase food via Food For People.

“We love Food For People,” Carr said. “We couldn’t do what we do without them.”

On October 1, Humboldt Soup’s On went completely mobile, meaning the volunteers now deliver food directly to people in their encampments. Recently, due to the government shutdown, Humboldt Soup’s On got a call from Northcoast Children’s Services informing them about children in the area who are living in cars with family members and in need of food. Carr and her fellow volunteers were more than happy to help. After a quick Zoom meeting, they decided to bring the kids “as much food as we can possibly bring them.”

She described her team of volunteers as “the most wonderful humans I ever met in my life,” adding, “truthfully, they are so committed.”

Sometimes Carr marvels at where she is and what she’s doing. “Like I said, I never planned it,” she said. “If you would have told me this three years ago, I’d think you were crazy. But here I am! And, yeah, this community has just been phenomenal to us.”

She says her team of volunteers is committed, but clearly she is, too.

“We will not stop feeding people,” Carr said. “I always say, I’ll either have to be in jail or dead before I stop.”