**
**
As the National Football League gears up for its signature matchup of the year this Sunday in Super Bowl 50, Kansas City Chiefs employees gathered for their own competition on Tuesday—this one playing off the big game's title: the “Souper” Bowl of Caring.
More than simply a volunteer event, the "Souper" Bowl of Caring was a friendly contest held at the local Harvesters in Kansas City that features 90 participants from the Chiefs organization, including team executives, Chiefs Ambassadors, K.C. Wolf, Red Coaters, Chiefs cheerleaders and Chiefs staff members.
For the seventh year in a row, Chiefs employees were broken up into three separate teams and asked to help Harvesters by assisting in their BackSnack program.
"Our BackSnack program serves over 19,500 children a week," said Valerie Nicholson-Watson, the president and CEO of Harversters. "It's primarily elementary school students who will get a backpack full of food every Friday that school is in session and these are children who might not otherwise have enough food on the weekend, so we're very proud of the project.
"It takes a lot of manual labor to get those BackSnacks packed, and so again, that's why we're so thankful for the Chiefs and other individuals and organizations that come in and help us out by volunteering."
Whichever team packs the most BackSnacks wins the competition, providing the employees with even more reason to pack as many packages as they possibly could in the allotted time.
**
Kansas City Chiefs staff, cheerleaders, ambassadors and Red Coaters assemble food packages for Harvesters in a fun and friendly competition.
**
"The reality is that people don't realize that people in our community don't know where their next meal is coming from," said Chiefs president Mark Donovan. "Harvesters does such a great job of addressing that need and we support them, so they gave us this opportunity and we took full advantage and our staff has a great time with it."
By the end of the competition, the Chiefs had broken the 3,000-BackSnack threshold.
"It never seems to amaze me how people want to get involved and help our cause and not just our cause, but help a person that's in need," said Clara Cooper, the president and CEO of the "Souper" Bowl of Caring. "Last year, we collected over $8.1 million in food and monetary donations. Because of the need and people across the country who need help, we are increasing that goal significantly [to $9 million], but we can do it."
---
If you're interested in making a donation or supporting your own "Souper" Bowl of Caring efforts, please visit http://harvesters.org/Souper-Bowl for more information on how to join the Chiefs team.
