SOUPer Bowl: Great Event—Even Greater Cause

By Hannah Favorite (Co-Publisher)

The 2019 SOUPer Bowl took place January 31 at Nease High School and raised approximately $30,000 from ticket sales and donations. Money raised at the event will be donated to Blessings in a Backpack, an organization that fills backpacks with food for children in need to take home on weekends.

Tickets were sold for $25 dollars each and donations were taken as well. Each attendee was able to bring home a bowl made by a St. Johns County student and was able to try 26 soups provided by various restaurants in the community. At the end of the event, each attendee was able to vote on which soup was their favorite; St. Johns Technical High School of the Culinary Arts won the title of “People’s Choice Award” for their tortilla soup, a Mexican–themed soup topped with fresh avocado bits.

In a speech at the end of the event, Valley Ridge was congratulated for raising the most money out of the 11 schools for the SOUPer Bowl’s side project, “Be The Change.” Kate Blumberg, head chair of the event, said “We ask any of the schools that would like to collect change for a particular week, usually in January, and then that tallies up and they can compete for a trophy.” In total, the 11 schools raised over $3,000 that will be used to provide food for children in St. Johns County that may not have food enough in their pantry for the weekend.

Two Nease IB Juniors, Sanya Bansal and Shai Kothari, spearheaded both projects. Sanya Bansal said “We helped organize campaigns at local schools in St. Johns County that collected change for a week…All this change will go towards Blessings in a Backpack.”

For more information on what goes on behind the scenes of the SOUPer Bowl, check out Issue 3 of The Vertical.

To learn more about what they do at the SOUPer Bowl, visit their website here.

Cover Photo Credit: Hannah Favorite

For more pictures from the event, click here.