Tickets are now on sale for the 2025 Souper Bowl, the annual event that lets you do good by enjoying good soup. Over the last 28 years, the Souper Bowl has grown into the biggest annual fundraiser for the Domestic Violence Intervention Program — now the Domestic Violence Intervention Program and Rape Victim Advocacy Program (DVIP & RVAP) — and to mark those 28 years, this year’s Souper Bowl will feature 28 different soups from local restaurants.
“The Souper Bowl was created by Executive Director, Kristie Fortmann-Doser, to challenge the myth that more violence occurs against women around the NFL Super Bowl,” Alta Medea, the nonprofit’s director of Community Engagement, explained in a news release. “Domestic Violence is a year-round issue, and we use this event to not only raise much-needed funding but also awareness about domestic and sexual violence. Community-wide support with an event like this shows victim-survivors that they are believed and supported.”
This year’s Souper Bowl will be held on Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Higherlander Hotel in Iowa City (2525 Highlander Place). The soups run the gamut from vegetarian (barley lentil from Oasis) to the decidedly non-vegetarian (Red’s Alehouse’s bacon corn chowder). Other options this year include chicken tortilla soup from 2 Dogs Pub, tuscan tomato from the Bread Garden and Basta’s lobster bisque.
The soup isn’t the only attraction at the fundraiser. There’s also the bowls, which are created for the event by local artists. Anyone who buys a general admission ticket for the in-person dining event at the Highlander ($35) gets a bowl to keep. Ticket-holders at the VIP level ($75) get a chance to select their bowl of choice early, and will receive commemorative gift in addition to their bowl. There’s also “student/volunteer/sliding scale’ tickets available ($25), but those don’t come with one of the bowls artists have donated for the Souper Bowl.
There are also pick-up and delivery options for people who can’t make it to the Highlander or would rather enjoy their soup at home. The VIP ticket for pick-up or delivery ($100) gets you five soups of your choice, along with the bowl and commemorative gift. The general admission ticket ($45) comes with two soups and a bowl, and the student/volunteer/sliding scale ticket gets you two soups.
Pick-up and delivery tickets are only on sale through Thursday, Feb. 13.
DVIP grew out of an initiative launched by the University of Iowa’s Women’s Resource and Action Center in the late 1970s. It opened its first shelter for people threatened by domestic violence in 1980, and now covers eight counties in southeastern Iowa — Johnson, Iowa, Cedar, Des Moines, Henry, Lee, Van Buren and Washington. Last year, after the University of Iowa decided after five decades it would no longer house the Rape Victim Advocacy Program, the program joined with DVIP.
Souper Bowl organizers are still looking for volunteers to help with this year’s event. Those interested in helping can sign up online.
Thanks to the restaurants donating their soups, the artists donating their bowl and the support of sponsors, “100% of ticket purchases will go directly to supporting victim-survivors,” DVIP & RVAP said.
Since this will be the 28th annual Souper Bowl, the fundraising goal for the event is $28,000.
