2004 Souper Bowl campaign nears $3.7 million

Published: 2004-02-11

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Nearly $3.7 million has been raised in the 2004 Souper Bowl of Caring campaign, which is run in conjunction with the annual NFL Super Bowl football championship game. Close to 10,600 organizations, the overwhelming majority of them churches, collected the money. The churches and other organizations merely report their collection totals to Souper Bowl headquarters in Columbia, S.C.; local food banks and anti-hunger charities get the money they collected. The $3,694,576 reported through midday Feb. 11 is a record, topping the $3,540,770 collected in 2003 from 12,500 organizations. "At this time last year, it may have been $3 million," said the Rev. Brad Smith, a Presbyterian minister who is the Souper Bowl's founder. "If our pacing is similar to last year, we should be at $4 million." Rev. Smith said 840 Catholic parishes had reported collections totaling more than $806,000 this year. "I'm thinking we could see $1 million raised by Catholic parishes before this is all over," he added.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .