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Ms. Cheap: Nashville Zoo’s Souper Bowl Food Drive exchanges free tickets for donations




The Nashville Zoo collected approximately 21,000 pounds of food at its 2022 Souper Bowl Food Drive. People who donate food receive free tickets to the Zoo.FILE

The Nashville Zoo collected approximately 21,000 pounds of food at its 2022 Souper Bowl Food Drive. People who donate food receive free tickets to the Zoo.FILE

Want to go to the Nashville Zoo for free this year?

Well, it is so easy to get a voucher for a free visit just by donating food this weekend to Second Harvest Food Bank.

The Zoo’s Third Annual “Souper Bowl Food Drive” takes place Feb. 11-12. Donations will be collected from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

“Guests are asked to bring non-perishable food to donate to those in need,’’ said Zoo spokesman Jim Bartoo. “As an added incentive, the Zoo is offering a complimentary admission ticket when four or more eligible food items are donated.”

He noted that there is a maximum of two tickets per household/donation.

Some of the most needed non-perishable food items include canned foods like beans and soups, jarred foods like peanut butter and spaghetti sauce, boxed food like cereal, rice pasta, and shelf stable milk.

Bartoo said that the complementary tickets that the Zoo will give in exchange for donated food can be used during normal Zoo hours through the end of 2023. However, there may be some blackout dates.

Hance

Hance

This year, the Zoo’s collections take place on just the two days this weekend — Feb. 11-12. But in 2021 and 2022, there were longer (seven day) drives that yielded tons of food.

In 2021, the “Souper Bowl” food drive collected 19,900 pounds of food and distributed 2,900 tickets. In 2022, the drive brought in 21,000 pounds of food and 1,500 zoo tickets were distributed.

Second Harvest’s Ally Parsons emphasized that the need for food is great, with Second Harvest’s numbers showing that 1 in 8 people including 1 in7 children in Middle Tennessee are at risk of hunger -meaning that they don’t know when or where they will find their next meal.

“We are so thankful to have such incredible partners like the Nashville Zoo encouraging their visitors to support the community,” Parsons said.

I commend the Nashville Zoo for this outreach effort. I love the idea of them rewarding their patrons for helping feed our hungry neighbors.

Mary Hance, who has four decades of journalism experience in the Nashville area, writes a weekly Ms. Cheap column. She also appears on Thursdays on Talk of the Town on NewsChannel5. Reach her at mscheap@mainstreetmediatn.com and follow her on Facebook as Facebook.com/mscheap

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