While the weekend was filled with football fun, another big event was drawing a crowd for a good cause. The annual Souper Bowl of Caring event in Bardstown, held at St. Joseph Parish Hall and organized by the St. Joseph Church youth group, raised $14,398 to support the local food pantry.

Typically held the Saturday before the big game, the Souper Bowl of Caring is a long-running chili and soup cook-off event bringing teams together to compete for the top title. Community members are invited in to sample an array of soups and chilis. Then, they can vote for their favorite by making a donation to that team, and the soup and chili teams with the most funds raised by the end of the night take the win. This year’s event welcomed both cash and online donations.

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth participated again in the Souper Bowl with a traditional-style chili. While they didn’t take the top title, the Sisters did raise $1,033 at their table, earning them second place in the chili competition. Winners this year were St. Joseph Archery/The Ice Family for best soup, Bread for Life Community Food Pantry for best chili and the St. Joseph Office Staff for best table design.

Souper Bowl of Caring is a national initiative that began in 1990. In the last 16 years, the Bardstown community has raised more than $110,000 for the St. Vincent de Paul Bread for Life Community Food Pantry, which serves more than 600 local families monthly and thousands of Nelson Countians each year. Monetary donations to the food pantry go a long way, as the ministry can purchase more food than what can typically be purchased at retail value.

At the event, a table was set up demonstrating this impact, showing a $20 donation allows the food pantry to purchase about eight times the amount of food through Feeding America and other suppliers versus how far the same $20 would go in a standard grocery store.

Following last year’s event, Souper Bowl donations purchased 350,000 pounds of food. With this year’s success surpassing 2022, the impact will continue to grow as the community tackles hunger in Nelson County.