White Plains-based Stepinac High School students concluded on Feb. 7 their successful, month-long 2024 SOUPer Bowl, the school’s single largest annual food drive, to help Feeding Westchester meet its critically important mission of addressing the region’s food insecurity crisis.
They collected and donated more than 20,000 cans of soup and other nonperishable, nutritional food items — exceeding the campaign’s goal of 15,000 food items. The students’ donations will be distributed by Feeding Westchester to local food pantries to help the nonprofit “nourish our neighbors in the fight against hunger” in communities throughout Westchester.
Stepinac’s students were rewarded for their efforts in this year’s SOUPer Bowl Food Drive by being given the day off, Monday, Feb. 12, fittingly the day after Super Bowl Sunday,
The mid-winter timing of Stepinac’s SOUPer Bowl Food Drive, first introduced in 2012, helps to address low inventories of food items that food pantries experience following the holidays. It is one of the core annual initiatives undertaken by Stepinac’s Campus Ministry.
Underscoring the severity of food insecurity in the region, on average, every month Feeding Westchester serves 220,000 people, many of whom are children. In fiscal 2023, it distributed more than 21 million pounds of food, equal to more than 17 million meals.
Archbishop Stepinac High School offers young men of the Archdiocese of New York a highly competitive academic and extracurricular program that will prepare them for college and leadership roles.
