Souper Bowl of Caring exceeds its $100,000 goal

Courtesy photo/Michelle Tate

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Saint Joseph Elementary School eighth-graders help sort through all the canned food donations to load into the Catholic Community Services truck for delivery.

SALT LAKE CITY — During the Souper Bowl of Caring food drive, which ended Feb. 17, the Diocese of Salt Lake City raised 280,000 in canned goods and cash donations, most of which was given to Catholic Community Services Northern Utah Food Bank.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is a youth-led national event during the Super Bowl weekend to fight against hunger and poverty. St. Joseph Elementary School was the first in the Diocese of Salt Lake City to initiate the fundraiser in 2005 with 3,800 soup cans, and has continued to expand the program throughout the years.

Dominic Colosimo, Juan Diego Catholic High School student body president, involved the entire diocese in the drive in 2013 by contacting the student body presidents at Judge Memorial and Saint Joseph Catholic high schools, who in turn invited parishes and other Catholic organizations to participate.

This year, the Diocese of Salt Lake City ranked sixth nationally in the amount of donations for the Souper Bowl of Caring, said Colosimo, who headed the campaign with Lynelle Williams, Juan Diego director of student activities.

Using cash donations from the drive, Colosimo and fellow officer Kristen Shimkus bought nearly 26,000 canned goods to add to the total for the Skaggs Center. The Skaggs Catholic Center raised 123,500 in canned goods and monetary donations, exceeding its goal of 100,000, representing 43 percent of the state total.

The drive "was fantastic, beyond mine as well as everyone else’s expectations," said Colosimo. "We wanted to do this during Catholic Schools Week to show our Catholic values. We’ve been collecting food since a week before the Super Bowl. At Juan Diego, kids have been bringing in food, we’ve held free dress days to collect donations, and we also stood outside grocery stores the Saturday before the Super Bowl to collect food and other items. We’ve had fundraisers at places like Classic Skating and received a percentage of the proceeds and had help from elementary and middle schools. It just keeps going."

Judge Memorial also held free dress days to collect canned food, monetary donations and other items throughout January and February, said Luke Stager, campus minister.

Saint Joseph CHS also gave a portion of its collection to CCS’s food bank and a portion to the Ogden Rescue Mission, said David Donlevy, student body president.

While the schools connected with the Skaggs Catholic Center brought in the bulk of the donations for the Souper Bowl, Saint Joseph Elementary School also contributed significantly.

St. Joseph Elementary collected almost 30,000 items or almost 15,850 pounds of food for CCS’ Food Bank, said Marcie Valdez, CCS Northern Utah director.

"When you think that St. Joseph Elementary has 380 students, it’s incredible that they collected that much food," Valdez said. "They more than doubled the amount they collected last year. The students have such a level of commitment."

The elementary kids depend on their parents and "this year the parents were phenomenal," said Michelle Tate, St. Joseph Elementary counselor and Souper Bowl of Caring coordinator. "We had one parent who grew up in the Philippines and knew what it was like to live on a box of rice; we also had some corporate sponsors."

The food bank shelves get low this time of year, following the Christmas holidays, said Valdez. "This food drive fills the gap between the holidays and the Boy Scout food drive in March. We serve 2,300 households each month, and we have increased our services to provide support to other Ogden partners like the Salvation Army, Your Community Connection, Youth Impact and Ogden/Weber Community Action."

Out of the food collected from the Skaggs Catholic Center, 4,000 pounds was divided between the CCS’s Saint Vincent de Paul Dining Hall and CCS’ Saint Mary’s Treatment Home for Men, said Valdez; 6,000 pounds of food was delivered to the Utah Food Bank to support some of the Salt Lake pantries.

The Souper Bowl of Caring also brought in $25,000 from Arby’s Restaurant for CCS’ "Bridging the Gap" child hunger program in Weber County, said Danielle Stamos, CCS public relations and marketing coordinator. "That will feed children, who are on the student reduced or free lunch program on the weekends in the Weber/Ogden School District. There are 16,000 children on the program."