Souper Bowl raises over $4,000

On a cold winter evening, the cafeteria buzzed with over 500 people searching for the perfect bowl to drink their “all you can eat” soup.

The 11th annual Souper Bowl was held on Feb. 7, from 5 to 7 p.m in the cafeteria. Students and parents helped cook over 20 large pots of minestrone, chicken noodle, black bean and potato corn chowder. The event raised roughly $4,000.

The ceramics department wasted no time making the bowls to prepare for this event.

“My students have been making the bowls since the first week of school,” ceramics teacher Leah Aguayo said. “We were like ‘Do we have enough? No, we have make some more. Do we have enough yet? No, let’s make some more.’”

The Los Gatos High ceramics department also pitched in, making more than 30 bowls.

“I panicked a bit that we were not going to have enough [bowls] so they stepped up to help us,” Aguayo said.

This Souper Bowl was the largest so far, serving over 500 people.

“The most shocking thing for me was that the doors opened at 5 and by 5:12 the room was filled,” Aguayo said. “I remember when it was 5:22, every seat was taken and it just continued like that and eventually flowed to outside.”

Although students made more than 450 bowls, the bowls ran out and volunteers had to hand out over 50 paper bowls.

“The two moms who were taking tickets at the door started taking phone numbers and email addresses so my students can make about 50 more bowls,” Aguayo said.

Aguayo plans to use the money to buy raku kilns, which are typically used for Japanese pottery.

“We used to do it years ago but the kilns just got so old that we couldn’t do it anymore,” Aguayo said. “My husband [ceramics teacher Ralph Aguayo at Los Gatos High] is going to check them out and hopefully we will be able to buy a few for the department.”

Aguayo hopes to host after-school workshops for the raku firing and to invite Los Gatos High students to participate.

She credits the success of the Souper Bowl to the parents who helped her with the event. Aguayo said she is very thankful to Junior Clark Rothenberg’s mom, who did all the shopping, the orders, donation letters and transported all the materials to the school. In addition, many parents helped at the vegetable chopping party.

Teachers also promoted the Souper bowl, and many students volunteered to cook and clean up after the event.

Although the Souper Bowl volunteers had to overcome a few hurdles, Aguayo is proud of the event.

“I think that I have a purpose in life and that’s to feed people,” Aguayo said. “Food builds a sense of community and this event proves that. It’s just awesome to see everybody pull together to make the event a success.”