Thousands of ounces of soup!

By Todd Hammond

Recently, Creekside Church of the Brethren near Goshen, Ind., challenged the other congregations of Northern Indiana District to participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring. The aim was to see which congregation could gather the most ounces of soup to feed the hungry in our local communities by Super Bowl Sunday.

Agape Church of the Brethren in Fort Wayne, Ind., took up the challenge! Over the course of several weeks, members of the congregation collected more than 13,300 ounces of soup to feed the hungry. Over the next several days, members of the Agape Witness Commission distributed the soup to local food banks, including several neighborhood free food pantries in downtown Fort Wayne.

Witness Commission members Andy and Andi Lane shared: “Andrew, I, and the kids went downtown and filled 4 of the 31 free food pantries. We still have plenty of soup to deliver but I’m glad we started with these! Most of these pantries were completely empty and we posted on their Instagram and Facebook on behalf of Agape Church!”

Columbia City Church of the Brethren came in first place, collecting more than 16,000 ounces of soup, and will be awarded the trophy for the 1st Annual Souper Bowl of Caring.

Creekside Church of the Brethren, which threw down the challenge, took second place, collecting just over 14,000 ounces of soup.

Agape took third place in the district’s Souper Bowl of Caring challenge.

What’s even more amazing is that the congregations that participated collected more than 500 gallons of soup that will help ameliorate food insecurity across northern Indiana.

That’s being Jesus in the neighborhood!

— Todd Hammond is pastor of Agape Church of the Brethren.