Westfield's 'Souper Bowl' scores over 3,000 cans for Food Pantry ... - MassLive.com

Westfield's 'Souper Bowl' scores over 3,000 cans for Food Pantry ... - MassLive.com

WESTFIELD - While New Englanders are still mourning the Super Bowl loss, Westfield Food Pantry Director Rebecca Hart is ecstatic about the outcome of the Souper Bowl.

"I cannot believe what they were able to do in just 10 days," Hart said of the 3,149 cans of soup collected by city employees to benefit the pantry.

The Souper Bowl was an effort to fill the Westfield Food Pantry shelves with soup. Spearheaded by city Personnel Director Jane Sakiewicz and her staff, the drive brought out everyone's competitive spirit.

"We thought it would be fun to hold this in conjunction with the Super Bowl and challenged all city departments," Sakiewicz said.

Although the Westfield Food Pantry and its participants were the true winners of the 10-day drive, the Westfield Police Department earned a pizza lunch party for donating 780 soup items. The city's dispatch department was not far behind with 632, and the fire Department donated 289.

"Our biggest individual donor was (City Clerk) Karen Fanion," Sakiewicz said. "And although the police donated the most, when it comes to percentage based on the number of department employees, dispatch won."

Mayor Brian P. Sullivan thanked everyone who participated.

"This started from an idea in (the personnel) office and turned into a competition in the city," he said. "There was phenomenal support from all departments, especially police, fire and dispatch."

Hart was grateful for the contribution and said having a large amount of one items makes distribution - and collection - easy.

"It's nice to ask for one type of item because people always ask what to give," she said.

Sakiewicz said the collection will be a quarterly event and since the police won, they will get to select the next challenge, with direction from Hart based on need.

"I think the next one would be good for a snack bar collection," said Hart. "We will be looking toward summer and there's no free and reduced lunch in the summer. There are lunch programs, but not everyone participates or can get to them so having items like granola bars is a good way to help feed kids."

Hart thanked employees gathered in the personnel office Tuesday morning and said this is a difficult time of year at the pantry.

"There are a lot of people who get laid off for the winter and the donations don't come in because people's Christmas bills are due," she said. "This will help. And we will share what we can with the school pantries we support."

The Westfield Technical Academy pantry is the largest pantry supported by the Westfield Food Pantry. Hart said the pantry also helps students purchase equipment, such as steel-toed boots, that they need for their programs.

Some city departments not only participated in the Souper Bowl drive challenge, but also created challenges within departments. At the fire department, all four shift groups competed, with D Group winning bragging rights for collecting the most donations.

Personnel staff created a donation leaderboard in the office and said it helped fuel the competition.

"We ended the drive at noon Monday and the police brought in more soup at 11:55," said Sakiewicz.

Hart said she appreciated the efforts of everyone who donated and helped load trucks, and especially Department of Public Works staff who delivered and unloaded the donations at the pantry.

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Souper Bowl Leaderboard (number of cans donated)

Police: 780

Dispatch: 632

Fire: 289

Technology Center: 242

Personnel & Payroll: 234

Council on Aging & Veteran Services: 214

Building & Public Properties: 212

DPW: 96

School Business & Food & VIPS: 92

City Clerk: 74

Mayor: 66

Purchasing & Audit: 56

Collector & Treasurer: 30

Assessor: 27

Community Development & Off Street & Conservation: 22

Health: 10

Weights & Measures: 3

Parks & Rec: 2

Retirement: 2

Airport: 2