Austin's Souper Bowl of Caring still looking for donations

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Entering the final week of Central Texas’ largest community drive to tackle hunger, the Souper Bowl of Caring is reporting 2013 campaign donations to date of 328,000 pounds of food and $126,000. These donations will provide over 700,000 meals to Texans in need.

The youth-led campaign, running now through Super Bowl Sunday, has a goal of collecting enough food and funds to equal 1.3 million meals to address the rising needs of food assistance.

 H-E-B, Central Market and Randalls have partnered to get people to buy pre-packaged food and donate money to the food drive. 100 percent of all donations will benefit local hunger-relief organizations like the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas.

“As people across the city do their gameday shopping, I encourage everyone to pick up a bag or make a cash donation to help people who are hungry through Souper Bowl of Caring,” said Tracy Bender, President and CEO of Souper Bowl of Caring. 

Super Bowl weekend activities include a collection by the Capital Area Boy Scouts as part of their 64 ^th annual Report to State and Scout Parade. Scouts and their leaders will collect food donations at the corner of Congress Avenue and Cesar Chavez from 7:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2. More than 200 area congregations and schools will also hold food and fund drives to benefit the local hunger-relief charity of their choice.

“These Souper Bowl of Caring donations will be a tremendous help in feeding the hungry, and comes at a critical point in time,” said Hank Perret, Capital Area Food Bank of Texas President and CEO. “A huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far for their superb commitment to bettering the lives of our hungry friends and neighbors.”

Since the program started in 1990, volunteers have collected more than $91 million in dollars and cans nationwide. All donations go to local charities.

KXAN, KBVO and the CW Austin are supporters of the Souper Bowl.