UMs to collect food for hungry Super Bowl weekend

By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
National Football League teams aren’t the only ones planning their strategy for Super Bowl
weekend next month.
For the first year since he’s been at First UMC, Gonzales, Joel Griffin and his youth group are to collect nonperishable items and money for Souper Bowl of Caring. The young people are to be at Gonzales Christian Area Ministries, the recipient of whatever they collect, Feb. 2 and at the church Feb. 3.
Griffin had participated in the nationwide Souper Bowl of Caring anti-hunger effort while a church youth leader in Houston.
“The great thing for us is all the money, anything we collect, goes to local organizations,” he said. “We don’t have to send anything off. It doesn’t get distributed. You know exactly where it’s going.
“And the youth actually get to see it. They literally take it to the place we’re giving it to.”
Souper Bowl of Caring helps “mobilize youth to fight hunger and poverty in their local communities,” the organizational Web site, www. souperbowl.org, says. Churches, teams and individuals can be involved by signing up at the site. At least 20 Southwest Texas congregations officially participated last year.
Since Souper Bowl of Caring began in 1990, youths and churches around the country have collected more than $41 million for food banks, soup kitchens and other charities, the national organization reports.
National leaders recommend that money collected through Souper Bowl of Caring be given to a charity of the group’s choice—whether local or national.
Griffin said he chose a local organization because he wanted his youths to see that hunger exists in their backyard.
“We talk a lot about other people who are hungry in other countries,” he said. “But it’s here in Gonzales, too. It’s people they know, maybe friends they have at school. It reaches everywhere. I hope they’ll be able to see that these things are right outside the church, that they’ll realize they can help wherever they are.”
Cynthia Duvall, who helps run Souper Bowl of Caring at Colonial Hills UMC, San Antonio, said her congregation has participated for more than eight years.
Last year, she said, Colonial Hills gathered almost $1,300 for Christian Assistance Ministry in San Antonio.
Collecting money for charities “gets the emphasis away from Super Bowl and football,” Duvall said. “(Church members) seem to always get into it.”
Alice Sutherlun, program director for Schertz UMC, said Souper Bowl of Caring provides a way for youths to help the community.
At Schertz youths are to stand outside the church with a large soup pot Feb. 3, she said. They are to deliver donations to the nearby Randolph Area Christian Assistance Program.
Souper Bowl of Caring draws youths’ focus to what’s important, Sutherlun said.
“It makes them aware of the folks around them who need help,” she said. “It gives them a simple way to meet that need.”