The Souper Bowl is a fun competition between Idaho Falls and Skyline High School to see which school can collect the most cans to donate to the Community Food Basket. The organization’s goal is to help struggling families that do not have enough money to feed their children. The food basket also seeks to help get families back on their feet. Last year both schools brought in over 50,000 pounds of food and helped to serve 15,276 struggling families. The goal for this year’s Souper Bowl is 200,000 cans! 

To get an inside view of this annual event I interviewed Brisia Zamora, a sophomore student government president. To first get to know her experience I asked her some personal questions during the interview. When asked about how long she has been involved in student government she replied, “I have been in student government for freshman and sophomore year. For middle school, I was in 7th and 8th grade.” That means she has been in student government for 4 years and counting, giving us a glimpse into the expertise she has gained over the years. Who inspired you to join? I inquired, and her reply would surprise you. “My two older sisters inspired me because I wanted to get closer to them. They also convinced me to join because they said it’s fun. So I took the club.” 

I then asked her more about the Souper Bowl through the eyes of the student government, the ones who run it.  “We don’t start to talk about the Souper Bowl until November. We start to enforce the project and plan by seeing how many boxes we need for each classroom in late December and Early January.” Social Media Manager Lynzie Dooley decided to ask Brisia, Just how does the school afford such expensive prizes?  “ We [student government] use money from past years,” She explained, “We do many fundraisers, projects to be able to raise the money we need to buy all of the amazing prizes that can be given.” When I asked about her favorite part of the entire thing she described a vivid image  “I love how we collect cans and bring them to the food basket. I also love the fact that when we bring everything to the people that are working their faces light up with joy.”

When asked if there was something that most students here at Skyline don’t know about the Souper Bowl. “It’s not a secret but most people don’t know when we receive large bags of rice we split the rice up into the certain required weight it’s supposed to be in. The only reason we do that is because we can’t give the food basket such a big bag of rice.” 

Then I proceeded to ask her more about student government itself. “I love the people in the club, everyone is so sweet and I’ve made many new friends. A memory I will cherish is when the student government went to state. During state, we will bring everything that represents our school including our colors, anything. We did win first place for being the most spirited school. Freshmen and Sophomores go to Pocatello while the Seniors and Juniors go to Boise to compete.” She is thankful to her sister for suggesting that she join because she has made many friends and she loves doing things to help people, even if it’s doing simple little projects.