'Souper Bowl' Brings Big Game to Homeless

Tony Keener, one of the 100 or so homeless men who attended a Super Bowl party at the Central Union Mission yesterday, was rooting for the Arizona Cardinals, mostly because of quarterback Kurt Warner.

Keener, 51, who has been homeless on and off for the past three years, has followed Warner's ups and downs in a long NFL career that has included injury and bad luck, but also three trips to the Super Bowl.

"A lot of the guys here are good guys," said Keener, looking out at the dining hall where the men were munching hot dogs and watching the two big-screen televisions. "They've just had bad breaks."

Organizers call the party the "Souper Bowl of Caring," an annual event that the Logan Circle mission holds on the day of the big game. Volunteers from churches and other nonprofit groups donated cash and nonperishable food items and served a hot meal (chili, hot dogs and dessert) while the men watched the match between the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. At halftime, they listened to a couple of residents offer testimonies about their lives.

The mission's celebration is part of a national effort to enlist young people in the struggle against hunger and poverty. The idea for the Souper Bowl of Caring originated in South Carolina 19 Super Bowl Sundays ago, when Brad Smith, a seminarian at Columbia's Spring Valley Presbyterian Church, said a prayer calling for people to enjoy the game but to "be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat."

A movement spread throughout the Columbia church community, with students collecting money and canned goods. More than 16,000 social services groups participated in Souper Bowl of Caring events yesterday. To date, the program has generated $50 million for soup kitchens and other charities, according to its Web site. Among its numerous private sponsors are several NFL teams, including the Cardinals.

It's not all that different from what the Central Union Mission, a nondenominational Christian social services ministry, does on the 364 other non-Super Bowl days of the year, serving about 80 men who spend the nights and another 30 who eat in year-long residential treatment programs.

"We just try to put a touch on it," said food service manager Jeff Tooles. "Most places, they don't let the guys see the game. We try to provide them with a safe place to be and enjoy the football."