Kailash Letman, a freshman at the Kauai High School, spent the next to last day of his winter break throwing around lumps of clay at the Clayworks at Kilohana in Puhi.
“He’s been doing this a long time,” said Susan Pittman of the Clayworks. “Those are for the soup bowls for Souper Bowl Sunday — my goodness, how fast it has come up. It seems like we just did it yesterday.”
Souper Bowl Sunday, whose proceeds benefit the Lihue Lutheran Church Mobile Munchies program, comes on Feb. 3 — the same date as the National Football League Super Bowl LIII that will be contested at the Mercedez Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The soup-and-bowl event opens at 11 a.m. and runs through 1 p.m., ending in enough time for the start of the televised event.
“We’ve got some bowls already made,” Pittman said. “We start glazing and firing, next week so everything will be ready.”
Patrons enjoy a specially-made soup by Chef Mark Sassone of Gaylord’s in a handmade soup bowl that can leave with the customer after enjoying the soup. The soup and bowl can also be made to-go for enjoyment once the game starts on television.
“This is the 23rd year we’re doing the event,” Pittman said. “When we first started in 1996, it was just a handful of bowls, and it was mainly to prepare for the following year when we served soup.”
From the onset, Souper Sunday benefited community nonprofits until Mobile Munchies started in 2005. Since then, proceeds from Souper Sunday benefits the weekly brown bag snack program that serves more than 450 bags each week.
“That’s a lot of hands that go into making more than 400 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” said Pittman, one of the weekly sandwich makers. “In addition to the PBJ sandwiches, the bag also has carrots, raisins, and even a container of juice.”
Once completed, the brown bag snacks are distributed to different organizations like the Boys & Girls Club, Nana’s House, the Koloa low income, Lihue Town Court, Hale Ho‘omalu, Child and Family Service, Lihue, and to God’s Grinds to help feed people.
Launched in 2005, the Mobile Munchies delivered 2,300 sandwiches that year. Since then, the program has grown to where Mobile Munchies, at the end of 2017, had delivered 21,188 sandwiches in the year, a growth from 2016 where 20,678 sandwiches were delivered through the year’s end.
People patronizing the Souper Bowl event can visit the Clayworks shop to select a handmade bowl to go with the Chef Mark Sassone soup creation, Feb. 3. Others can walk in on Souper Bowl Sunday and get choices on whatever is available.
Info: 246-2529
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
