Annual Souper Bowl Raises Money for W&L’s Backpack Program This year’s event raised $9,700 to support the Campus Kitchen at W&L’s Backpack Program.
Washington and Lee University’s Campus Kitchen (CKWL) and community members helped tackle childhood hunger in Rockbridge County in early February with its annual Souper Bowl event. This year’s Souper Bowl raised $9,700 to support the Campus Kitchen at W&L’s Backpack Program.
This hunger-fighting project began in 2009 as a partnership between CKWL and local public schools. The CKWL Backpack Program now serves all area elementary schools and Head Start programs, providing more than 1,250 children with a bag of non-perishable food items to take home for the weekend.
The Feb. 5 event featured 19 local soup creations from 14 participating restaurants, caterers and community organizations, and many were made with locally sourced ingredients. This year’s Souper Bowl participants were CKWL, CHEFS Catering Company, Globowl Café, Heliotrope Brewery, LexMex Tacos, LexVegas Bistro, Napa Thai, Pronto, Pure Eats, the Rockbridge Jewish Community, the Southern Inn Restaurant, Sweet Treats Bakery, the Georges and W&L Dining Services. The event was also sponsored by Full Circle Catering and Captrust. Musical performances by W&L’s female acapella group, Jubilee, and student bands 3 Cooks 1 Kitchen and Meatpuzzle helped make it a memorable day for the 500 people who attended.
“This year’s Souper Bowl was a fantastic event! We would like to thank our sponsors and all of the restaurants, caterers and community organizations that made so many fantastic soups,” said Ryan Brink ’18, CKWL coordinator. “It was great to hold this event again in person, and we look forward to building on the excitement and energy from this years’ program in future years.”
“This event took a lot of time and work to plan, but it was so worth it because of its importance in helping fund the Campus Kitchen at W&L’s Backpack Program and the way it helps foster such an incredible sense of community,” said Jensen Rocha ’23, treasurer and head of the finance and fundraising committee for CKWL. “The Souper Bowl does so much to bridge the gap between the Lexington community and the students at W&L, and I could not be more grateful to help plan an event like this.”
If you missed this year’s event, you can still make contributions online to support the Campus Kitchen at W&L’s Backpack Program.
The mission of CKWL is to use service to strengthen bodies, empower minds and build communities. CKWL combats hunger and promotes nutrition by recovering and reusing food that would otherwise go to waste into balanced meals for low-income community members in Rockbridge County, Virginia.
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