A Super "SOUP-er" Bowl 2015

The New York Common Pantry organizes an annual food drive around the time of the NFL Super Bowl for schools to collect soup and pasta to benefit local families during these cold winter months called the “SOUP-er Bowl.”  St. Bernard’s has participated in this drive in years past, competing with other school “teams.”  This year Team St. Bernard’s was determined to collect more food items than it ever has, which would mean breaking last year’s school record of 1,607 items (more than 600 over the original goal).  Students set an ambitious goal for 2015:  2,500 food items.  And they outdid themselves again by collecting over 3,000 items!

“The boys in the fourth grade really made it happen,” said Ms. Oshins, faculty co-chair of the community service committee.  “They were the ones who started the school’s challenge to collect of 2,500 food items and promoted it.”  They also conceived and arranged an incentive—a free dress day for the entire school for reaching the goal.

Boys in IV Russell promoted the challenge by making and displaying posters around school.  They calculated and advertised that if each St. Bernard’s boy were to donate 7 food items then St. Bernard’s would achieve and surpass its goal.

The promoting done by boys in IV Davis’s class took center stage.  They wrote two skits which were performed during morning assemblies.  Their comical announcements entertained and educated the entire school and got students and faculty behind the mission.

Extra credit goes to fourth grader Jaan R. who came up with the smart idea of giving bracelets that say “SOUP-er Bowl Star” to donors, who wore them proudly.

Each morning for two weeks students, parents, and teachers brought in so many soup cans that the collection table in the lobby looked like a new soup-can fortress every day.  In addition, the monetary donations collected in a basket in the faculty lounge purchased an extra 200 cans of soup.  On February 10 the New York Common pantry posted the above notice to St. Bernard’s for being the 2015 SOUP-er Bowl team leader with its final score of 3,087 food items.