Stirs broth and thickens it for the needy (4-8)

'stirs broth' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'thickens it for the needy' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'thickens' is 'kitchens' which is within the answer.
The remaining letters 'soup' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'and' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?