BROADALBIN – On Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 7, the Confirmation Class, consisting of five teenagers, of the First Presbyterian Church will be collecting food and money for Souper Bowl of Caring during the morning worship service. Proceeds will go to the Broadalbin Ecumenical Food Pantry and Mayfield Central Presbyterian Church Food Pantry, a news release said.
Anyone wishing to support this mission can send their checks to First Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 86, Broadalbin, NY 12025. All money collected for this event will be matched from mission funding, the release said.
Souper Bowl of Caring is a program consisting of youth nationwide working to fight hunger and poverty in their own communities around the time of the Super Bowl football game.
In the weeks leading up to or on Super Bowl Sunday, young people across the nation take up a collection asking for one dollar or one item of food for people in need. One hundred percent of the donations go directly to the local hunger-relief charity of their choice.
In 2012, more than 10,000 groups collected more than $9.8 million in dollars and food for local hunger-relief charities. That’s a total of more than $90 million collected since the movement began in 1990, the release said.
According to the release, a simple prayer, “Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat” has been inspiring this youth-led movement to help hungry and hurting people around the world.
The prayer, delivered by Brad Smith, a seminary intern serving at a church in Columbia, S.C., gave birth to the idea to use Super Bowl weekend, a time when people come together for football and fun, to also collect dollars and canned food for the needy.
The senior high youth of Spring Valley Presbyterian church liked the idea so much they decided to invite other area churches to join the team. Twenty-two Columbia churches participated that first year, raising $5,700 for area non-profits.
Since 1990, over $90 million has bene raised for soup kitchens, food banks and other charities in communities across the country, the news release said.
