MT. STERLING, Ky. — A church in Mt. Sterling held a Soup-er Bowl challenge in their community, encouraging Kentuckians to donate to a canned soup drive benefiting their local food coalition.

Michelle Ballard, the associate minister of children and youth at First Christian Church, helped organize a canned soup drive to encourage Montgomery County residents to give back.

“This idea again came from just having the Super Bowl event today. We wanted to have a way for families, not just with the church but also families in the community to partner with the church to provide canned soups for the local Sterling food coalition,” Ballard said.

The event was called "The Souper Bowl Challenge." The church collected the canned goods throughout the morning and brought the donations to the sterling community food coalition.

“Homelessness and hunger are the top concerns in this community and so we wanted to provide just an easy way to serve. The easier it is to serve the more likely people are to participate. So, this is a great event and we wanted the whole community to get involved,” Ballard said.

Ballard said Super Bowl or not, finding ways to get the community excited about giving back is something they encourage other communities of faith to do, especially during this time of need.

“The pandemic has obviously affected many families who have been unable to pay their bills have been struggling to put food on the table, who have just have many needs come about during this pandemic and so we want to help we want to be a place that is a safe refuge for people in our community,” Ballard said.

First Christian Church plans to host more service events like this soup drive every few weeks to help those struggling during the pandemic in the Mount Sterling Community.

For anyone wanting to get involved in the upcoming service events, can check out their Facebook page for more information about the church and their community service events.