Souper Bowl celebrates football and generosity in St. Joseph

By Kendra Simpson

In 1990, Brad Smith led a youth group at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, in prayer, stating, “Even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat.”

This was the beginning of the Souper Bowl of Caring.

Nearly 35 years later, the national effort encourages communities and organizations to gather soup and different kinds of non-perishable items to collect and deliver to food pantries every year during the week of the NFL Super Bowl.

Several St. Joseph churches, including Wyatt Park Christina, Grave Calvary and First Baptist Church are participating in this year’s event and accepting donations.

From there, the donations will be brought to InterServ, where they will be distributed among families and individuals in need.

“The people who benefit from this food drive would be the folks that do come to our food pantry each week,” InterServ’s Director of Resource Development,” Julia McDowell, said. “We do give them the allotted amount that they can have, but when we have donations that come in that help such as the Souper Bowl, then we’re able to give them a lot more than what they would just get for a commodity standpoint.”

To help the cause, St. Joseph residents can donate canned goods, frozen or refrigerated items at participating locations and InterServ.

While InterServ always accepts food donations for their regular commodities, families get a limited amount of food to last for the month. With donations through the Souper Bowl, families will receive more food and snacks than the normal allotted amount.

InterServ will be accepting Souper Bowl donations from Feb. 4 to Feb. 11.