With one minute and 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter of the 17th annual Gate City Soup Bowl, sophomore quarterback Matt Pawlowski chucked the winning 33-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Hayden Read.
“It was a feeling of pure elation,” said Read in an email interview. “I was wondering how I was so wide open, and I just couldn’t believe that it was me of all people.
“It could have been any one of my teammates, but I was fortunate enough to be the one on the receiving end.”
There was more to cheer about than a dramatic victory. Guilford College and Greensboro College combined to donate 7,091 cans of food to the Urban Ministries Food Bank.
“All of the food banks — Second Harvest Food Bank, Urban Ministries Food Bank — their coffers right now are being depleted,” said James Shields, director of the Bonner Center of Community Learning. “So this is going to be a big shot in the arm for them.”
Donations are vital to struggling Greensboro communities.
“Greensboro–High Point is the fourth largest food insecure city in the country, said Shields. “30 percent of the students in Guilford County Schools are food insecure.”
With this in mind, former Greensboro College President Dr. Craven Williams started the Soup Bowl.
“Dr. Williams instituted a football team at Greensboro College,” said Dave Walters, assistant athletics director and sports information director. “He wanted to generate some interest and community spirit … so he came up with this idea of the Soup Bowl.”
It was originally known as the Soup Bowl, and then for a time as the “Souper” Bowl.
Later, the schools changed the name back to the Soup Bowl, to avoid copyright infringement with the NFL.
Regardless of the name, the mission has always remained the same.
“We get our players to donate and collect cans,” said Chris Barnette, assistant football coach-offensive coordinator. “The soup bowl is a competition within the athletic department, as in which team can collect the most cans.”
The Soup Bowl also impacts awareness in the community.
“We can influence one or two people every day to think about hunger and homelessness,” said Shields. “To think that you probably drive by a patch of woods every day, not knowing that there are people living in those woods.
“To think twice about not giving to a person who is asking for food or supplies.”
As a Hunger Fellow, senior Helen Mandalinic works to bring food to the hungry and promote hunger awareness.
“There are a lot of athletes doing service,” Mandalinic said. “I think this is something important; to come together and acknowledge the issues hunger presents.”
Every can means that one more person can have a warm meal one night — something many of us take for granted.
“I think we’re having fun and everyone is going to donate some food,” said sophomore Sam Dawson. “So that’s a really good thing.”
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