Students cheered for hunger to come to an end. Photo by Jodie Woodward.

By Thomas Hair
Online Copy Editor

On Feb. 5, hundreds of millions of people across the world will tune in as the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. While this contest will feature two phenomenal football teams, it will also mark the conclusion of a very different fight: The Souper Bowl of Caring’s fight against hunger.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is a massive charitable effort during the weeks leading up to the actual Super Bowl. The organization collects donations from participating institutions nationwide and then allows the participants to allocate the donations to charities of their choice.

“Souper Bowl of Caring is about everybody giving a little,” Souper Bowl of Caring President Tracy Bender said. “There are over 140 million people that watch the game on TV and if everybody gave something to help people in need it could really make a great impact and difference for people who are hungry.”

The actual Super Bowl generates lots of buzz in the United States. The Souper Bowl of Caring seeks to harness this energy to engage people in serving their community. The fundraising campaign’s football theme and connection to the actual Super Bowl makes it an exciting opportunity of service even for apathetic teenagers.

“It’s really unique how we have so many organizations such as football teams like the Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins, just teaming up to fight hunger and tackle hunger,” Student Council vice president senior Abigail Femi-Ogunyemi said.

If there is a school that has proven that it understands the concept of pitching in, it is Coppell High School. Last year, CHS surpassed its goal and accumulated over 16,000 canned food items. Not only did CHS’s grand total exceed expectations, it was also the highest grand total in the entire nation.

Guests from organizations supporting this event were present at the pep rally. Photo by Jodie Woodward.

As a reward for its benevolence last year, Coppell High School was selected as the site of the Souper Bowl of Caring’s North Texas kickoff event this year. This kickoff event included a “fight hunger” pep rally on the morning of Jan. 13, capping off a week of school-wide donations in preparation for the event.

The CHS gym was bustling with activity even hours before the pep rally began, as hordes of corporate representatives graced Coppell High School with their presence to observe the kickoff event. A long list of Souper Bowl of Caring sponsors was present, including Albertson’s, Kroger, JACK FM 100.3 and Radio Disney.

A local high school hosting the kickoff of such an enormous, nationwide event piqued the interest of many, including local media. News channels CBS 11 and WFAA Channel 8 covered the pep rally, as did other media sources such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A segment on the Souper Bowl of Caring with footage from the kickoff event appeared on WFAA noon and evening shows, and is available as web content on CBS 11’s website.

“It’s worth so much local coverage because of its impact on the community,” WFAA journalist Bryan Titsworth said. “This really tells the community a lot of how kids are getting involved in their own community and how they can help people and how it’s making such a big impact.”

The kickoff event itself was in the traditional CHS pep rally style. The band played, the cheerleaders cheered and assistant principal Sean Bagley egged on the sea of students. This time, however, students were not cheering for their school, but rather, for attacking hunger.

Former Dallas Cowboys player, Drew Pearson, shows off his Super Bowl ring to encourage students to win the fight against hunger. Photo by Jodie Woodward.

Legendary Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Drew Pearson was there to give CHS some extra motivation. The three-time Super Bowl champion’s booming voice echoed throughout the gym. His cries of “Are you with me?” and “I can’t hear you!” elicited a far greater response from the students than the half-hearted cheer of run of the mill pep rallies.

“I used to watch [Pearson] play football for the Cowboys,” Titsworth said. “I was a big fan of him back then and it’s great to see him take pride in his community and help out. He’s a great guy.”

Pearson charged students to “work together as a team to make a difference” as he concluded his passionate speech. The three fourth-period classes that collected the most cans (Jennifer Furnish’s class, Kyle Dutton’s class and Angelina Wu’s class) certainly fulfilled Pearson’s challenge, and were awarded with a cookie party, a pizza party and off-campus lunch, respectively.

“We have a very small class so we just said ‘Let’s get together’ so we can help other people and do something nice,” Wu said. “The important thing is that you help other people who need help.”

The canned food items raised by Wu’s class and the rest of CHS will be donated to Christian Community Action (CCA) in Lewisville. By donating cans, Coppell students are directly feeding hungry mouths in their own community.

“It is important to have events like the Souper Bowl of Caring because a lot of people don’t realize that there are a lot of people within our own communities that aren’t doing so well,” CCA representative Jake Rice said. “It brings awareness about what CCA does plus the obvious benefit of providing us with food.”

Matching up to last year’s momentous total of 16,000 cans will prove to be quite the challenge. However, CHS is already well on its way, having already collected 2,000 cans by the kickoff event, by the time the Souper Bowl of Caring had begun.

Even though the excitement of hosting the kickoff event has passed, Coppell students are encouraged to continue racking up the cans in the coming weeks until Feb. 5.

“Last year we raised 16,000 cans, and this year we just want 100 percent participation – it’s a team effort and everyone has to get involved”, Femi-Ogunyemi said. “Houston is trying to beat us so we just have to hold on to our belt right now. I smell a rivalry!”

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