Hays County Food Bank's Souper Bowl of Caring campaign

With Super Bowl LIV, comes watch parties and a plethora of food. Whether you’re in it for the game, the ads or the halftime show, you can also get involved in a different way.

The Hays County Food Bank has kicked off its annual Souper Bowl of Caring — a national movement that encourages food and fund drives leading up to Feb. 2.

“Souper Bowl of Caring is actually a huge organization so it’s a national movement, so everybody can participate,” said Mallory Best, Hays County Food Bank communications coordinator. “Basically, it’s just you turn in your collections after the Super Bowl. But everybody is into the Super Bowl for some reason, whether it be for the game, for the ads, for the halftime show, it’s something that can bring everybody together. So they kind of go off of that excitement to like, ‘hey, why don’t we use that to actually help our fellow man?’ So host a food drive, host a fund drive, collect at your Super Bowl party just bring it in the week after the Super Bowl.”

Those wishing to participate in this year’s food and fund drive can also visit San Marcos’ H-E-B locations. The two stores will donate collections as shoppers can purchase pre-filled bags of food or add a small monetary donation to their bill when they check out.

“I think it’s been about 30 years, give or take, but I know that we’ve been receiving funds and food from (Souper Bowl of Caring) for quite a few years, especially with our partnership through H-E-B,” Bes said. “We get to use the San Marcos stores. So we have those H-E-B stores (to raise food and funds).”

The Hays County Food Bank and its partner agencies helped distribute over 1 million pounds of food to food-insecure households in 2019. The food bank and its partners provided food assistance to 950 households each week, which included homes with senior citizens, children and those facing economic challenges.

While many donate during Thanksgiving and Christmas, Best said contributing to the food bank during Souper Bowl of Caring is a good way to begin the year.

“Yes, we do get food and we get funds during November and during Christmas because people think of giving it that time — It’s the giving season,” Best said. “But we’re a food bank all year round so there is no season for it. People are hungry all year and we serve on average about 975 households or about 2,500 individuals, each and every week. So, therefore, we need to keep our pantry stocked to do so. And I want to say it’s about 13 to 14,000 pounds of food goes out every week. So we always need food.”

As people prepare to host their Super Bowl parties, Best hopes they’ll also consider contributing to Souper Bowl of Caring.

“We would love for this to be even bigger than last year,” Best said. “H-E-B. the individuals who shop at H-E-B raised $26,700 and almost 20,000 pounds of food was purchased through the program (in 2019). So we would love to see that even bigger and grow even more.”