HCC kicks off Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive
Feb 5, 2016
For many people, Super Bowl Sunday is a time to get together with friends and family, eat our favorite foods and root for our favorite team. However, not everyone gets to enjoy a decent meal. On Super Bowl Sunday, as on every other day, 66,200 people living in the Greater Houston area will go hungry and that number includes 5,000 children.
Houston Community College (HCC) is helping those families in need by partnering with Souper Bowl of Caring once again for its annual food drive. The nationwide effort uses Super Bowl weekend to help raise food and funds to fight hunger. This is the second year HCC has participated in the event. Between now and Wednesday, February 17, students, faculty, staff and community members can drop off non-perishable food items in the red and white donation bins located near the front desk at the HCC West Loop, Stafford, Gulfton, and Missouri City campuses.
“Any opportunity we have to work together and help our community, we are going to jump at it and get involved,” HCC Southwest Interim President Madeline Burillo, Ed.D. said. “Our students, faculty, staff and community members know how important it is to be involved and they take great pride and joy in doing so.”
All items donated and collected by HCC will benefit East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry, Inc., a local food pantry based in Stafford that distributes food to families within the HCC Southwest service area.
"The Souper Bowl of Caring collection is a blessing that keeps our pantry shelves stocked for the upcoming busy summer season," East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry Executive Director Vickie Coates said. “We helped 41,430 Fort Bend residents last year and the financial assistance provided to our community members totaled $144,778. We are grateful for organizations like HCC Southwest and what they do to give back to their community.”
The non-perishable food items needed most, include: canned tuna or chicken, canned stews, canned pasta, canned fruits and vegetables, soups with meat and/or beans, packages of dried beans, peanut butter, applesauce, cans or boxes of 100 percent juice, boxes of cereal or cereal bars, and boxes of pasta.
For every five food items presented to the front desk at HCC Southwest campuses, contributors will be entered into a raffle to win a signed football by Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins or win a $20 Landry’s reward card. Raffle winners will be notified by the end of the month.
HCC collected nearly 268 pounds of food for the charitable organization last year and hopes to surpass that number this year. The HCC food collected and donated will count as part of the Souper Bowl of Caring’s overall total. The goal is to raise $2,016,000 in cash and food donations to provide 2.75 million meals to people in need in South East Texas.