Jan. 30—Fill up your bowl and your belly with some of the best soups in town for a good cause.
Souper Bowl 2025 is happening from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, at Roadrunner Food Bank. Proceeds benefit the food bank and its efforts to provide food items to people who are struggling to cover their nutritional needs.
Many participating restaurants, culinary professionals and pastry chefs will compete for their chance to take the top spot in various categories including People’s Choice Soup, Critics’ Choice Soup, People’s Choice Vegetarian Soup, People’s Choice Dessert and People’s Choice Best Booth.
The Critics’ Choice Soup First Place award is named after Larry McGoldrick.
“He passed away after being a long time supporter,” said Diana Sanchez, event and communications coordinator for Roadrunner Food Bank. “He was an accomplished food critic, a blogger, a Yelp contributor, and he passed away in 2021. We include a little photo of him in the program. We have a lot of people that have supported us for so many years and this eventually is a way for us to sort of give back. While we do sell tickets, because it is a fundraiser, it allows people to kind of see us face to face, and we can interact with people who are supporting the same mission. It’s just a fun time.”
About 35 restaurants, including nine new participants, will be part of this year’s event. For a full list of participants, visit rrfb.org/souper-bowl.
“It’s really a cool way to get the community together,” Sanchez said. “It’s held in our warehouse, which is a place that not a lot of people get to really visit, and so they can see our warehouse and eat some soups, all from local restaurants. Everything donated to the silent auction is local, as well as our volunteer groups, just everyone behind the scenes. We try to keep it as close to New Mexico as possible.”
More than 1,000 guests are expected to attend this year’s event.
“(Souper Bowl) went on a hiatus in the year 2021 and 2022, so 2023 was when we came back, and then 2024 was our second year, and this has been growing ever since,” Sanchez said. “And so, I feel like this one might be our largest one yet since being back.”
Proceeds from every ticket sold benefit Roadrunner Food Bank.
“That helps offset our operating costs, which goes through our programs,” Sanchez said. “It goes to purchasing food. It goes to even our employees, staff salaries. Every $1 helps provide up to five meals (to people in need).”
Sanchez said Roadrunner Food Bank has the purchasing power to stretch its dollars when obtaining food for its cause.
“These kind of bulk items that are either rejected from stores before they hit the landfill, there’s nothing wrong with them,” Sanchez explained. “It’s just that the American consumer is sometimes sort of finicky and our grocery stores reflect that. They’ll oftentimes reject produce and that’s where we can come in and get it. And so every ticket sold helps us in that mission. It helps us reach further into New Mexico. It helps us develop programs to help with wraparound services, like SNAP applications, Medicaid, that kind of thing.”
Roadrunner Food Bank serves a majority of the state and hopes to make more connections with tribal areas and rural communities experiencing food deserts.
The food bank also provides services that complement its hunger relief programs and serve as a public health resource, including bringing food to health care provider sites as well as providing food through its on-site medical referral food pantry, according to its website.
“Your support through funds, food or time ensures we are able to source, acquire and distribute food to touch the lives of 70,000 hungry people each and every week of the year,” according to the website.
