Stepinac High School Students Kick Off 6th Annual SOUPer Bowl Massive Food Drive

Super Bowl Sunday, February 4, 2018 is more than three months away but that date is already on the radar screens of Archbishop Stepinac High School students. That’s because today they kicked off the school’s 6^th annual massive food drive, known as the SOUPer Bowl.

If they successfully follow in the steps of prior Stepinac student-run campaigns and collect 25,000 cans of non-perishable food and other food items to help feed the hungry and homeless throughout Westchester and the Bronx by Super Bowl Sunday, they will be granted a day off from school. Typically, that reward occurs on the following day, Monday.

SOUPer Bowl is Stepinac’s single largest annual food drive that “addresses a tremendous need for food by food pantries and soup kitchens in our community, a problem that is especially acute after the holidays when the level of donations declines,” said Stepinac President, Rev. Thomas Collins (Class of ’79).

As in prior SOUPer Bowl drives, students will be encouraged to start bringing food items to school each week which will then be donated to charitable organizations including Lifting Up Westchester and Caritas of Port Chester as well as local food pantries, soup kitchen and parish churches throughout the Stepinac community.

In addition to SOUPer Bowl, Stepinac students will also once actively undertake a wide range of clothing, food and other drives during the holidays.

Stepinac also has a tradition of helping others in need outside of their immediate community. At the start of the current school year, which coincided with back-to-back devastating hurricanes, students quickly mobilized around campaigns to bring relief. The incoming freshman class participated in a unique effort entitled “Adopt a Class” for which they collected and shipped more than 30 boxes of school supplies to help their peers at a 9^th grade biology class at Klein Oak High school, Spring, Texas that had been impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

Stepinac’s baseball program joined in the endeavor to help those affected by the hurricanes by spearheading an initiative to benefit the American Red Cross relief efforts. More than 42 boxes of essential goods and supplies were collected and shipped and about $3,000 was raised.

Frank Portanova (Class of ’93), Stepinac Vice Principal for Academics and Curriculum, said: “When we talk about our role as a Catholic school, we go beyond

the triple-r’s and talk about developing our students spiritually and in terms of development of their souls. And service is a big part of that.”

About Archbishop Stepinac High School

The mission of ArchbishopStepinacHigh School is to offer young men of the Archdiocese of New York a highly competitive academic and extracurricular program that will prepare them for college and leadership roles. The faculty and staff accomplish these objectives by pursuing excellence and creating a supportive, disciplined atmosphere with a strong sense of camaraderie and Christian values that is unique to the Stepinac experience. For more information, visit www.Stepinac.org.