Anti-hunger 'blitz' tackles Presbyterians

LOUISVILLE — Presby-terian football fans nationwide will be asked to make a few hand-offs as they leave church on Super Bowl Sunday,
Feb. 5.

        That’s when volunteers, mostly young people armed with soup pots, will be collecting canned goods and dollars at churches, businesses

for the annual Souper Bowl of Caring.

        The Presbyterian-founded, youth-oriented anti-hunger campaign takes advantage of the National Football League championship game to raise money for the poor and ill-nourished.

        Since being launched 15 years ago, the Souper Bowl has raised more than $28 million on Super Bowl Sunday for food banks, soup kitchens and other charities in communities across the country. Organizers hope this year to get 14,000 congregations and schools involved and raise $5 million.

        On Tuesday, about a dozen national staff members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other supporters were ready to score big for this year’s campaign when they gathered in front of the Presbyterian Center here for the 2006 Super Bowl of Caring “Blitzathon.”

        The “souped up” event is a traveling tailgate party that arrived at the PC(USA)’s national offices in an Airstream SkyDeck RV, a long shiny trailer lined across the top with the words “One dollar. One day. It all adds up!”

        “What this is, the Souper Bowl of Caring, is a simple movement of God’s grace,” said the Rev. Brad Smith, who started the fund-raiser 15 years ago at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. “Mother Teresa once said, ‘God doesn’t call us to do great things, but small things with great love.’”

        The brief program, which included ham-and-bean soup and choir music, was part of a 17-city tour that kicked off Jan. 15 in Miami, FL. The Blitzathon was aimed at thanking past participants and inspiring youth and adults across the country to join the Souper Bowl of Caring.

        Smith, a former youth minister, challenged every Louisville church and school to join with others across the nation to transform Super Bowl Sunday into the nation’s largest day of neighbors caring for neighbors.

      
         “The vision God has put in our hearts is to see Super Bowl weekend become the largest weekend of giving and serving in the life of the country,” said Smith, who read about the biblical fishes and loaves from the book of John.

        The Souper Bowl is at work through church youth groups and schools, as well as a variety of service organizations, and is endorsed by NFL owners and local businesses.

        Last year more than 11,000 congregations and schools raised $4 million in all 50 states, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Puerto Rico and Brazil.

        There were 2,228 Presbyterian churches in all 50 states that took part in Souper Bowl 2005, generating $740,273. Groups that participate are asked only to report their totals, so that a national figure can be calculated.

        The PC(USA) has been a longtime supporter of the Souper Bowl of Caring, according to the Rev. Gary Cook, the denomination’s associate director for Global Service and Witness and the event’s master of ceremonies.

        The Presbyterian Hunger Program contributed $9,000 to help meet administrative expenses for the 2006 Souper Bowl. The hunger program also provides Souper Bowl resources to every PC(USA) congregation.

        “We are gung-ho about the Souper Bowl of Caring as it mobilizes our youth in addressing hunger in our midst,” said Lionel Derenoncourt, the hunger program’s associate for International Hunger Concerns. “All the money raised is given to local charities by the groups who raise it. This is a great initiative.”

        Loyda Aja, the PC(USA)’s associate stated clerk, urged volunteers not to abandon the fight against poverty and hunger “till every person has had enough to eat.”

        In another phase of the Souper Bowl program, youths are urged to help one day in a local soup kitchen or other feeding program — a job that more than 13,000 youths performed last year.

        “I think the Souper Bowl of Caring is a visible reminder that young people are deeply compassionate, deeply committed to those around them,” said Gina Yeager-Buckley, the PC(USA)’s associate for Youth Ministry. “That they are able, perhaps faster than most adults I know, to grab and jump onboard a movement.”

        A choir from Wayside Christian Mission in Louisville, whose soup kitchen is one of the agencies that receives funds from the campaign, sang gospel music before the mission treated those in attendance to hot soup.

        Super Bowl Sunday is a big deal at Springdale Presbyterian Church in Louisville, according to the church’s pastor, the Rev. Jean Davidson.

        As the fundraiser approaches each year, Davidson said the congregation rolls out an artificial green carpet decorated like a football field. Posters advertising the Souper Bowl begin popping up on bulletin boards and on bathroom stalls around the church. The congregation forms teams to see who can raise the most money.

        “Our congregation gets excited knowing we are a small part of something that will be multiplied a thousand times over to feed people in need,” Davidson said. “On a Sunday that’s often about excess, we get excited and rejoice that for us it’s also about gathering huge amounts of food to feed those who need it.”

        She said the campaign is a reminder that “we are in ministry wherever we are, whatever we are doing. Even if we are part of a sports event.”

        For more information, call (800) 358-SOUP (7687). The program’s home page, www.souperbowl.org, offers resources including prayers and Bible studies.