give to the Souper Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday...or give now

"For now I ask no more than the justice of eating." – Pablo Neruda, Nobel Prize winner

 When the Seattle Sea Hawks face off against the New England Patriots on Feb. 1, many of us will sit down to a bountiful array of Super Bowl snacks - and, many of us will not. As much as we don’t like to think about it, especially when we’re heaping hot wings, chips and tasty dips on our plates, hunger and poverty are very real, right here in Barrow County.

Some indicators of this include that 51 percent of our public school students qualify for free or reduced meals. Many of our schools are “Title 1” which is a federal aid designation for schools in which 35 percent or more students are from low income families. An example of what qualifies as “low income” is a family of four living on under $24,000 a year.

Every month, on the fourth Thursday, the Barrow County Cooperative Benevolence Ministries (BCCBM) delivers boxes and boxes – some 15 tons – of food to Barrow residents who meet those low income guidelines. These “neighbors in need,” as the BCCBM calls them, begin lining up in the Holly Hill Mall parking lot before the sun comes up, rain or shine, no matter the temperature, and by the time the distribution begins, the line is very, very long. The food is purchased from the Food Bank of NE GA by a sponsoring church or business and each month about 500 households receive enough food to light up their eyes and fill their bellies, at least for a while.   

Two other BCCBM projects, Food2Kids and Food2 Families, give child-friendly provisions to students and their families who have been identified by teachers and school social workers as living in “food insecure” homes.  Imagine that…a “food insecure” home…

I have helped with these food distributions and I can tell you, the face of hunger in Barrow County is diverse, dynamic and very real. There are elderly faces and faces of the disabled. There are dads struggling to find work and single moms unable to make ends meet. The most gut wrenching face to put on local hunger, though, is the face of a local child. My heart hurts when I see how much joy the sight of a ham or a box of cereal, a carton of milk, a jar of peanut butter, some fruit yoghurt or a bag of blueberries can bring to a hungry child’s face.      

This year, the BCCBM is issuing a new challenge to help fight local hunger. The ministry is inviting schools, youth groups, Sunday school classes, congregations, clubs and businesses to take up a collection of either food or monetary donations on or near Super Bowl Sunday and participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring.

This nation-wide program began in 1990 with a simple prayer said by Rev. Brad Smith of Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S. Carolina. His prayer was: “Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat.”

That first year, 22 churches raised $5,700. Since then, the movement has continued and involvement has grown, especially amongst young people. To date, more than $50 million in monetary and food donations has been given to local charities that participating groups chose within their communities.

Go to www.souperbowl.org for more information or to register your group. Souper Bowl of Caring is also on Facebook. Information on how much each participating group generated will be available on the website once the big game is over.    

The BCCBM is one of 18 local registered Souper Bowl of Caring participants. Donations to the BCCBM are tax-deductible and can be mailed to: BCCBM, PO Box 1553, Winder, GA 30680. Be sure to earmark the donations to be given directly to the Barrow County Food Pantry.

Donations of non-perishable food can be delivered to the pantry at 41 E. Candler St. in Winder. Items of most use include: canned meat, cereal, peanut butter, boxed pasta mixes, canned pasta and healthy child-friendly food. These can be dropped off between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri. or left at the Clothes Closet Thrift Shop next door between 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 

To make sorting the food and placing it on shelves quicker, full cases of like items are appreciated. Those with large donations can arrange for an alternate drop off time by calling food pantry coordinator Al Brown, 770-868-7269. He will also pick up donations.

For questions or more information, email BCCBM president Gwen Hill at bccbm@windstream.net 

It’s easy to judge those we perceive to be “needy” for reasons of their own making. It’s nearly impossible to judge children who by no action of their own, end up in homes where there is not enough food. Why not accept the challenge and make a donation? Everyone deserves “soup” on the table - not only on Super Bowl Sunday but every day. Do it. Donate for the kids. Go Pats! and thanks!