Student Contributor
The fifth annual SOUPer Bowl was a great success. The event met the set goal of $40,000 and was able to donate all of the money raised to the nonprofit organization Hugs Across the County.
Hugs Across the County is located in St. Johns County and its mission is to “raise awareness throughout the county about student poverty” and to “work closely with school counselors and the student services staff to identify needs.” Hugs Across the County helps set up food pantries in schools all over St. Johns County so that students are able to access food at any time. This helps the children to not feel embarrassed by having to ask for food; they can walk in and take food themselves. Every winter, Hugs Across the County is able to prepare and distribute an estimated 1,200 bags of food to provide kids access to food over winter break. Volunteers with this organization also visit the local elementary schools to interact with the children as an “encouraging reading buddy” or as a guest reader for a class.
The money raised through the SOUPer Bowl will help Hugs Across the County set up more food pantries and deliver bags of food to elementary, middle and high schools. They currently have 10 functioning school-based food pantries and are planning to implement even more in the future. These pantries along with the food donations help the roughly 800 students who are considered homeless and the thousands more who are considered food insecure living at or below the poverty line in St. Johns County. The food bags distributed at local schools help to feed kids over weekends when they do not have access to their school’s food pantry or the free or reduced lunch they receive during the school week.
In addition to helping feed hungry students, Hugs Across the County collects items such as clothing and shoes, they have literacy programs set up at Title 1 schools, and they have Empowerment Programs for at-risk girls in middle school. As of January, Hugs Across the County had already distributed more than 400 bags of clothing to children in need. Hugs Across the County is able to deliver these bags of clothing to sites all over the county thanks to wonderful volunteers. This organization holds monthly “Empowerment Lunch and Learn Programs” at multiple middle schools, and Bartram Trail High School’s HUGS Club writes monthly letters of encouragement to the girls involved in this program at Sebastian Middle School.
Hugs Across the County is an outreach that strives to help students of all ages across St. Johns County. To get involved and help the children at local schools who are in need, visit www.stjohnshugs.org.
