Souper Bowl of Caring reaps $2.8 million

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Souper Bowl of Caring, a grass-roots effort to help the hungry at the time of the annual Super Bowl football competition, raised more than $2.8 million this year.

Brad Smith, founder of the initiative, said more than 11,500 congregations participated, an increase from the 11,000 that took part in 1999. The congregations contribute food and cash donations received during the effort to local soup kitchens. Last year the effort raised $2.5 million. Smith, associate pastor of Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., said he appreciated the generosity of the participants “in the face of the biggest ice storm the South has seen in a number of years.”

The effort, which began in 1990 and went nationwide in 1993, often involves the youth of the individual congregations that participate.