Soup and oysters and do-gooding

Soup on Sunday Jan. 30 gives you unlimited tastes of soup, plus the chance to get a handmade pottery soup bowl. The event, the 11th annual, is a benefit for Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte Region, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Central Piedmont Community College's Culinary Arts Center, 425 N. Kings Drive (at the corner with Seventh Street). Among the soups on tap: Barrington's cream of cauliflower; BrickTop's lobster bisque, Cuisine Malaya's vegetable curry, Fenwick's tomato bisque, Red Rocks Cafe's white bean chicken chili, Sante's roasted butternut squash soup, 300 East's butternut squash with Gorgonzola, and Zebra's truffled mushroom. General admission is $30 and includes food and beverages; the Soup Lover's Special is $40 and you get a handmade pottery bowl (more will be for sale); children 7-12 are $10 and those younger are free. You can get tickets at www.hpccr.org or at the door, or call 704-335-4312.

Also Jan. 30: Look for the Growlers Pour House's oyster roast noon-6 p.m., benefitting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The roast will be in the back parking lot, under a tent, with heaters and five bands; tickets are $12 ($10 in advance) and include a $3 food voucher and $3 drink voucher. Chili, fries, brats and clam chowder will join the oysters: www.charlotteoysterroast.com.

"Party HEARTy" is what Georges Brasserie is calling its 5-7 happy hour Feb. 4, which will support Go Red for Women Day in conjunction with the American Heart Association. A portion of the proceeds of the Go Redtini -- made with pomegranate and orange -- and glasses of Chateau L’Amandier Bordeaux will be donated to the AHA.

Red Rocks Cafe at Strawberry Hill (4223 Providence Road) hosts a drop-in reception and silent auction March 15 to benefit the Men's Shelter of Charlotte and Providence Home (a youth shelter). Tickets are $150 per couple, $100 per person and are tax deductible. You can mail a check to the cafe, to the attention of John Love (the zip code is 28211), and your ticket price includes a buffet of heavy hors d'oeuvres and an open bar.