COEUR d’ALENE — With winter fast approaching, community members have a chance to sip soup and help bring other Kootenai County residents in from the cold.

“Souport the End of Homelessness” is 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. For $20 a ticket, guests can try 2-ounce servings of 32 different soups, prepared by professional and amateur chefs.

The fundraiser supports St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho’s winter warming center, which is open to anyone who needs shelter from the cold, wind and snow when temperatures drop below 28 degrees.

The warming center opens in November and typically remains open through February. It costs about $500 per night to run the shelter, which is not supported by city, county or state funds.

“The number of nights we can stay open are based on the dollars we can raise,” said Larry Riley, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho.

Keeping the warming center open is essential, Riley said. Without it, people in this community will freeze to death.

“People just aren’t equipped to endure those types of temperatures,” Riley said. “They’ve got to come in from the cold.”

An increasing number of Kootenai County residents are living out of their vehicles, Riley added. Some of these people can get by during the warmer months, when overnight temperatures are bearable and it’s easier to find a safe, inconspicuous place to park. But when temperatures drop, the situation becomes dangerous and even deadly.

“In the winter, those cars become refrigerators,” Riley said. “They don’t have the money to run gas all night to keep heater going. It draws attention when they don’t want to draw attention to themselves. And we don’t want anyone getting asphyxiated.”

Souport is the biggest source of funding for the warming center. At the event, community leaders will sell wooden nickels, which guests can use to cast votes for the People’s Choice Soup. There will also be an award for the “best dressed” table and a Best Soup award chosen by cuisine experts.

Riley said Souport is an opportunity for warm-hearted Kootenai County residents to help disadvantaged community members who often go unseen.

“We have an awesome community that tries to help people who are down on their luck,” he said. “These people don’t want to be judged. They just want to be helped and we have the ability to that.”