Each NFL Super Bowl Sunday, many people host or attend parties with abundant food, friendship, and fellowship. At the same time, over 1 billion people around the world go hungry.

On Super Bowl Sunday, please join more than 2,000 Lutheran youth groups to do something to change all of that.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is a youth-led ecumenical and grassroots movement that unites youth under a single cause: to end hunger. Collectively, this movement raised over $10 million for hunger-related charities.  But that’s not all. Youth across the country also collected more than 4.5 million pounds of food and provided countless hours of service.

Getting started is easy!

1. REGISTER online at www.souperbowl.org or by calling 1-800-358-SOUP (7687) to receive a free starter kit and begin your Souper Bowl of Caring preparations.
2. COLLECT donations on, or near, Super Bowl Sunday.
3. REPORT your results to be included in the national total.
4. DONATE your collection to the charity of your choice. This year, consider making a difference locally and globally.  Send half of the financial gifts to support a local charity and half to support this church’s response to hunger and poverty in over 60 countries—including hundreds of food pantries and soup kitchens in the United States—by giving to ELCA World Hunger, P.O. Box 71764, Chicago, IL 60694-1764. [Click here for more ways to give.]

BULLETIN-READY

• Prepare and serve a soup and sandwich luncheon after worship on Super Bowl Sunday, and take a free-will offering.
• Collect a “noisy offering” by collecting change, bills, and checks in metal soup pots.
• Invite members to tithe (offer 10 percent) of the amount they will spend on Super Bowl festivities.
• Challenge members to give a gift in the amount of their favorite NFL player’s number. For example, if your favorite football player is Brian Urlacher (#54) of the Chicago Bears, your gift should equal $54.
• Label two soup pots for the two football teams playing in the Super Bowl. Allow members of the congregation to place donations in the pot that represents the team they’re cheering for. The pot with the most donations “wins.”

• Meet and eat with people who are hungry. Consider connecting with and planning a Super Bowl party at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or community center.
• A week before the Super Bowl, drop off paper grocery bags with your neighbors. Leave a note that asks your neighbors to fill the bag with canned goods and designate a day when you will be back to pick them up. Donate all of the canned goods to a local food pantry.
• Organize a letter-writing campaign, and ask your elected officials to take action on issues related to hunger and poverty. Visit www.elca.org/advocacy for ideas.

• Learn about the root causes of hunger and about practical ways hunger can be rooted out. Order the new ELCA World Hunger curriculum for senior high students, Taking Root: Hunger Causes, Hunger Hopes.
• Plan a year-long series of hunger-related activities for your youth group. Include Bible studies, education, service projects, and fund-raisers. Free resources are available for your congregation at http://www.elca.org/resources (registration is free).