Recipients have ranged from soup kitchens and food banks to international missions and Habitat affiliates. Youth from each congregation use large soup pots to collect the donations as parishioners leave worship the morning of the game. Ask worshipers to give one dollar each.
Many congregations ask parishioners to bring a non-perishable food item too.
The Souper Bowl began in response to God love, particularly as experienced in Jesus Christ. The effort began with churches but all people of goodwill are encouraged to participate. Other religious congregations, schools and businesses represent a sampling of those who also joined the effort this past year. The effort began in the Senior High Youth Fellowship of Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC in 1990. The partnership has grown from twenty- two churches the first year to 12,552 in 2001.