MERIDEN – Just like the nationally televised championship recreation from which its title is derived, the Souper Bowl remains to be occurring, albeit with some new social distancing measures in place.
This yr marks the fifth yr of the Souper Bowl, a meals drive sponsored by the Kiwanis Membership of Meriden that has additionally been a pleasant aggressive occasion for numerous faculties within the metropolis. Gadgets and cash collected in the course of the Souper Bowl profit Meriden Soup Kitchen.
By way of the earlier 4 Souper Bowls, the Kiwanis Membership and collaborating faculties had donated a cumulative complete of 21,540 meals to the Meriden Soup Kitchen, together with $ 2,624, defined Brian Cofrancesco, president of servant management applications for the Meriden Kiwanis Membership.
College students and employees at 4 metropolis faculties, Platt and Maloney Excessive Faculties, in addition to Washington and Lincoln Center Faculties, started their annual Souper Bowl non-perishable meals drive final week and can proceed by February 6. . The occasion additionally encompasses a non-contact part, with blue meals supply containers put in at 10 areas all through the town.
A number of of these supply containers are situated in companies owned by Kiwanis Membership members, together with the regulation agency Solomon, Krupnikoff & Wyskiel, at 636 Broad St. and Il Monticello Banquet Facility, at 577 S. Broad St.
Meriden Soup Kitchen President Jackie Zdeb defined throughout a Kiwanis Membership videoconference assembly that regardless of the challenges posted by COVID-19, the mission of the kitchen has not modified: “Feed the hungry of the larger metropolitan space of Meriden “.
The mission entails extra paper merchandise, as a result of the group has switched to offering takeout meals to clients, because of the pandemic. The kitchen has greater than 100 volunteers, working in shifts, to hold out the every day mission.
“Serving the hungry … That is what we do every single day,” Zdeb mentioned.
Leaders have seen a lower within the variety of meals served as a result of clients are unable to eat on website. The group nonetheless serves no less than 110-115 meals every Monday by Friday afternoon.
In 2019, the yr earlier than the pandemic, the soup kitchen had served 39,000 meals, Zdeb mentioned.
Financial donations are necessary to the group, which has lengthy operated on the First Baptist Church campus at 460 Broad St. Zdeb mentioned the group wants funds for paper provides and to buy tools to maintain meals at temperatures. required by the town well being division.
The Kiwanis Membership additionally accepts financial donations by its web page on the Venmo cell fee app, @ KiwanisClub-Meriden. Yow will discover extra details about this yr’s Souper Bowl and a map of the meals supply areas at http://www.meridenkiwanis.org/.
At occasions over the previous a number of years, college students have usually volunteered to inventory the cabinets at Meriden Soup Kitchen. As a result of COVID, college students will merely drop off collections.
The scholars additionally obtained a listing of mandatory objects. They embody canned items: greens, soup, tuna, beans, and different objects. The listing additionally contains pasta, soup, on the spot mashed potatoes, and different objects.
Maureen DiPace, who advises the Key Membership at Platt Excessive College, famous that the Souper Bowl is only one of a number of fundraising and repair tasks the membership’s college students have been concerned on this college yr. Along with accumulating meals on the college, Platt Key Membership can be partnering with native companies, C-City and the Casa Di Roma restaurant in South Meriden, to arrange neighborhood drives to learn the Souper Bowl.
mgagne@record-journal.com203-317-2231Twitter: @MikeGagneRJ
