FROM STAFF REPORTS
Super Sunday and Super Bowl XLIV and all that goes with it will be here before you know it.
It's also known as Souper Bowl Sunday to a group of folks who work in the Meals on Wheels program in our community. The youth of area churches will be collecting money in soup bowls to feed shut-ins. The churches in Tarboro, Princeville and Pinetops have collected thousands of dollars over the past years.
In 1982, the four downtown churches – Calvary Episcopal, First Baptist, Howard Memorial and Saint James United Methodist – organized Meals on Wheels of Tarboro. They began delivering meals on Valentine's Day 1983, and volunteers from those same churches deliver the 40-something meals today.
The program is designed to serve a hot, nutritional noon time meal for those who for various reasons are no longer able to prepare meals for themselves. The money collected Sunday helps make it possible for this program to continue.
The meals are prepared by the Heritage Hospital dietary department, according to clients' doctor's specifications and delivered to the recipient's door.
Pastors are asked to announce the Souper Offering will be collected after the church service. The youth stand just outside the church's doors to collect at least $1 from each person as they leave.
The money collected will toward fight hunger in our community.
Donations may be mailed to Meals on Wheels, P.O. Box 1694, Tarboro NC 27886
Questions? Call Meals on Wheels Coordinator Barbara Barnes at 823-8411.
The Rev. Brad Smith founded the Souper Bowl idea in 1990 in Columbia, S.C.
"By God's grace, I was the person who delivered the prayer, 'Lord even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat,' which later evolved into the Souper Bowl concept," Smith said. "But the longer I'm involved, the clearer it becomes that we are merely stewards, partners in this ministry of compassion."
