Youth groups team up to battle world hunger

"Lord, as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, let us be mindful of those who are without even a bowl of soup to eat."

Today marks the 10th year that the youth at Peters Creek Church of the Brethren have been moved to put that prayer into practice through the Souper Bowl of Caring.

They join thousands of youth groups in churches across the country in a simple but profound movement to act on their Christian faith.

"It gives the youth a way of sharing, in a nonthreatening way, their concerns for world hunger," said the church's pastor, the Rev. Jack Lowe (no relation).

"They stand at the doors with soup bowls and soup pots and ask people to just put in a dollar," he said.

"Way back, we chose RAM house," Roanoke Area Ministries' ministry to the homeless, as the beneficiary of their collection, Lowe said. "Others send their money to other charities. I think that's the other key" to the program's success.

"We're not talking about sending money someplace else. The money stays locally, but it reminds us of the global issue of world hunger," he said.

Lowe was one of the earliest advocates of the program that originated with Presbyterian seminarian Brad Smith in South Carolina who wrote that prayer in 1988.

After Smith became associate pastor of a Columbia, S.C., church in 1990, he talked to his youth group about his idea for transforming what is essentially a national holiday into a really holy day.

Super Bowl Sunday has become about as big a deal as New Year's. People who don't know a punt from a pass watch the game. We obsess about it for weeks ahead of time, plan elaborate parties and viewings, and talk about it for days afterward.

And advertisers spend $2.4 million to buy a 30-second spot during the game. Party hosts will spend millions and millions more for tons of Buffalo wings, nachos and chili, some of which will end up in the garbage.

For people like Smith and Lowe, that is an annual call to action.

That South Carolina youth group got a couple of dozen nearby churches to join in the campaign in 1990, raising $5,700 by asking churchgoers for just $1 each.

The event spread across South Carolina over the next two years, and in 1993, Smith was ready to take the idea national. Almost 900 congregations in 30 states participated that year, raising $144,000, all donated to local charities chosen by individual youth groups.

Smith is now the full-time executive director of the organization, which is independently governed and raises money separate from the Souper Bowl to cover its overhead.

Last year, about 13,000 congregations participated, including more than 15 in the Roanoke and New River valleys - Presbyterian, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Brethren.

Nationally, the effort generated $4,260,531 for charities - slightly less than what one minute's worth of advertising will cost on this year's game broadcast.

Still, that's a lot of money raised by meeting modest goals, such as the $250 and 250 cans of food the youth at Peters Creek Church of the Brethren hope to gather this weekend and next.

"Every one of us is giving more than a dollar for these ads," by buying the products they promote, Lowe pointed out.

"So a dollar to help world hunger through a local agency is really very little sacrifice on our part."