Souperbowl of Caring provides nourishment from the heart
RUTLEDGE >> What’s for dinner?
Thanks to the Delaware County Souper Bowl of Caring, local families will have an easier time answering that question.
The shelves at Chester Eastside Inc., Bernadine Center in Chester and Loaves and Fishes at Prospect Hill Baptist Church are being restocked this weekend with thousands of canned and non-perishable food items. The effort ensures the Chiefs-49ers isn’t the only super thing on the calendar.
“The whole premise for us is that everything stays in Delaware County,” said coordinator Joe Couchara. “People can relate more to feeding those in their own backyard.”
Celebrating its 30th year, Souper Bowl of Caring is a national youth-inspired, youth-led movement working with schools, churches, local businesses, corporations, individuals and NFL teams to tackle hunger in local communities during the weeks leading up to football’s biggest celebration. Last year, nearly 5,000 groups collected more than $9.6 million in cash and food donations benefitting thousands of soup kitchens, food banks, meal programs and other hunger-relief charities and in excess of $150 million since the project began.
The Delco program involves Morton, Springfield, Westbrook Park and the borough and portions of Aston,
Drexel Hill, Media, Ridley and Ridley Park. Kicking off with the Jan. 18 event at ET Richardson Middle School in Springfield, door
hangers were distributed throughout the communities and homeowners placed signs with the familiar ladle of soup logo on their lawns. Residents were asked to fill a grocery bag with family-friendly food items and place it in front of their house for Saturday pickup.
Volunteers returned to the neighborhoods to gather the donations, delivering them to collection sites including St. Francis of Assisi, St. Matthew Lutheran and Tree of Life churches in Springfield and Chambers Memorial Presbyterian in the borough.
Helpers in each location were in full assembly-line mode, checking expiration dates, counting the number of individual items and boxing them by category. Pews at Tree of Life were marked by classification (soup, canned vegetables, pasta, drinks) and lined with boxes to speed up the sorting. The church processed more than 3,000 items last year and is hoping the figure will be higher to start the new decade.
“Food scarcity is a reality in our community and Chester Eastside Inc. is grateful to receive significant donations from our generous neighbors. Each contribution enables us to enhance the meals we provide to the families we serve.”
— Executive Director Rev. Zuline Wilkinson
Like the fans watching the game, the Souper Bowl of Caring is intergenerational. Young families and seniors from the churches and communities were joined by members of Girl Scout Troop 57 sponsored by Tree of Life, BSA Troop 277 from Wallingford Presbyterian Church, the Rutledge girls’ softball team and Ridley Park Presbyterian Church youth group.
“I have been doing this for quite a number of years,” said Hayley Lyman, 11, of Springfield and Troop 57. “A lot of people can’t afford food and other things and it is nice to help them.”
Saturday’s donations will be augmented by those collected today at churches throughout the participating communities.
“Churches should be at the forefront of meeting needs like hunger,” said Carolyn Jeffery, of Media, who helped coordinate the effort at Tree of Life. “Jesus teaches us to feed the hungry and care for others and this is part of our church’s mission.”
The bulk of the items packed at Chambers and Tree of Life will be delivered to Chester Eastside, which received more than a ton of Souper Bowl donations last year. The agency distributes approximately 120,000 bagged meals to residents each year and the donations help fulfill its mission.
“Food scarcity is a reality in our community and Chester Eastside Inc. is grateful to receive significant donations from our generous neighbors,” said Executive Director Rev. Zuline Wilkinson. “Each contribution enables us to enhance the meals we provide to the families we serve.”