Souper Bowl of Caring Campaign Raises $2.3 million

Feb 10, 2004 01:51 PM EST

New Jersey -- With the fund raised in the national Souper Bowl of Caring, which lasted for about a month, churches are working together to feed hungry people. While the Super Bowl was going on, $2.3 million was raised during the campaign.



The event was led by the Children’s Misison Project, under the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville’s Children’s Ministries. Lawrenceville raised about $568 through this drive. They will send the money to the Crisis Ministries of Princeton and Trenton, which operates a food pantry.



The campaign was all led by children. Each Sunday during January, they collected money using a soup pot and they also sold paper footballs on which donors could write their names. Not only the adults contributed the money, the children also donated $21.75.



Robyn Campbell, the church’s director of Children’s Ministries, said, "It's simple and it's an easy campaign to help people who are hurting and hungry. We are trying to get the children focused on giving. It's challenging."



"In Sunday School, they pass a basket and the children place a monetary offering in it," she said. "This is their pledge to the mission project they are working on for that month."




The Souper Bowl of Caring has originated from a pastoral sermon offered by an seminary intern at the Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C. in 1990. Since then, the Souper Bowl of Caring has raised more than $20 million., which has been donated to various charities.



For more information about the campaign, go to: www.souperbowl.org.