More stories from Souper Bowl of Caring fans!

Here is another great story from a local congregation that participated in Souper Bowl of Caring in 2011!

My name is Cindy Reninger and I work with the middle school youth group at Morningstar Presbyterian Church in Matthews, NC. We currently have about 15 activie children in the group, a good number considering we are a small church family.

We recently participated in the SouperBowl of Caring campaign and I wanted to share with you something we did in that process.

Jan 21-22 was our planned overnight Lock-In at the church. We usually go bowling, to a movie or to laser quest for their "fun activity" before being "locked in" for the night. This year, I did something a little different. To help the kids understand the importance of the SouperBowl of Caring, their "fun activity" was actually a Canned Food Scavenger Hunt. I had 18 kids broken out into 4 groups, each with a list of canned food items for which Urban Ministry Center (Charlotte, NC interfaith organization that serves poor and homeless people) indicated a need. The kids went with separate adult drivers to homes of 18 church members who volunteered to help out. The kids were given 2 hours to get to as many of the homes as possible, and to collect as many "different" canned goods as possible. All items were given different point values (which the kids did "not" know beforehand). I also gave each group $5 and told them they needed to stop at a grocery store, dollar store, pharmacy, etc. and also get toiletry items for which they would receive points if no one bought the same item they had. So they had to be pretty creative!

The kids not only felt like that had done a 'good thing' but they actually had a blast going to the houses and the store; and of course adding up points and getting prizes! The church members were also happy to be involved and to have an opportunity to interact with the kids that night! We collected over 120 cans and about 20 toiletry items.

The kids continued to provide announcements, do skits and create a bulletin board display in the worship space to promote more canned food donations on Feb 6th. Our final total collected was $92 and 214 cans of food, which I think is the most our small church has ever collected for this event!

Thank you so much for all that you do to make this event successful and meaningful!!
Cindy Reninger