Souper Bowl of Caring under way

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Thursday kicked off the seventh annual Souper Bowl of Caring in Austin to help feed those in need across Central Texas.

It’s a youth led food drive through schools, congregations community organizations and individuals who come together to fight hunger and poverty.

Travis High School helped kick off the start Thursday morning with cheerleaders, the band, and student speakers.

"I see students who haven't had a meal and when they approach me and asked me to do this, I was happy to do it really  happy to get involved with he Capital Area Food Bank,” saidd Kathleen Capobianco, a teacher at Travis High School.  She helped orchestrate the Souper Bowl of Caring at the High School. “Nobody should go hungry ever anywhere."

H-E-B , Central Market and Randalls put their swords down and teamed up to get people to buy pre-packaged food and donate money to the food drive.  All of the money and food will go to the Capital Area Food Bank.

"My mother when growing up there was seven of us so she had to resort to food stamps and food pantries and food so I guess giving back to some one what was given to me it just makes me feel like I can give something back,” said Jose Ramirez, a junior at Travis High School.

The three retailers have pre-packaged bags that are already filled with items such as tuna, green beans, corn, pork beans and peanut butter.

People can buy them for $5 to $15 or they can donate $1, $2, or $3 when the check out.

“Specifically here the Capital Area Food Bank serves 48,000 residents that are hungry and 20,000 of those residents are children,” explained Laticia Mendoza, a spokeswoman for HEB.  “Those are startling numbers and it’s near and dear to our hearts, we’re in the grocery business so we want to make sure we help put food in their hands so with the communities help we can do that.”

The food drive last for three weeks.  Their goal is to raise 1.3 million pounds of food.

 “Sometimes we say it’s not Miracle on 34th Street it’s miracle in Central Texas because we are very proud to join hands with H-E-B all the TV media, the other media partners in Austin to truly truly make a difference in something that’s a great need in our community,” explained Connie Yates, director of public affairs.

About 1 in 5 adults are I need of food and it’s 1 out of 4 kids.  The food bank provides to 300 partner agencies across 21 Central Texas counties.  It supplies about 2 million pounds of food a month.

“This is huge, we do over 400 events every year that have food collection involves this is the number one and it’s bigger by the second largest by a factor of seven,” explained Hank Perret, CEO and President of the Capital Area Food Bank.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is a national program that started in 1990 in Columbia, S.C., on Super Bowl Sunday.  According to the Souper Bowl’s website, Pastor Brad Smith was an intern at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church and started the idea.  He insisted that since everyone was getting together to watch the big game, youth should come together to help the community collect dollars and food for the needy.

Since then, the program has expanded and volunteers have collected $91 million in cash and cans.  All of the donations go to local charities.

The Houston Texans were the first NFL Team to support the program.  The Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis Colds, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs also support the cause.

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

How to donate

• H-E-B, Central Market and Randalls
• Donate at your door
• Scouts from the Capital Area council will pick up food door-to-door on Feb 2
• Organize a driver for your church or school
• volunteer