The Original SoupMan Partners With World Hunger Year and New York City Coalition Against Hunger

Seinfeld's "Soup Man" Provides 20,000 Bowls of Soup For Hungry New Yorkers

February 25, 2009

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NEW YORK, Feb. 25, 2009 — Soup Kitchen International, the creators of the Zagat-rated soups of Al Yeganeh, the legendary soup man who inspired the "Soup Episode" on Seinfeld, today announced a partnership with World Hunger Year (WHY) and the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) to continue Yeganeh's long-standing tradition of helping New Yorkers in need. "Al's Feed the Hungry Foundation," The Original SoupMan's non-profit charity headed up by Major League Baseball Hall of Fame legend, Reggie Jackson, will donate 800 gallons of soup to three soup kitchens: New York City Rescue Mission, Union United Methodist Church, and Bowery Mission. To commemorate the donation to the three soup kitchens, WHY, NYCCAH and The Original SoupMan will be holding a media event on Wednesday, February 25 at 12 pm at the New York City Rescue Mission located at 90 Lafayette St in New York, NY. As a special guest, Lisa Bouchelle, one of WHY's "Artists Against Hunger and Poverty", will be on hand to perform the single, "Time", featured on WHY's "Serve3" benefit album.

"We at WHY have always believed that the root cause of hunger is poverty and the root cause of poverty is powerlessness", said Bill Ayres, Co-Founder and Executive Director of WHY. "We are happy today to participate in an act of generosity that will help to feed thousands of hungry people. What we and all our fellow citizens need to do every day is to call on our government to create living-wage jobs and to fund job support programs that empower people to be self-reliant".

Said Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger: "As our Annual Survey showed, emergency food providers throughout the City are in desperate need of food and agencies certainly appreciate the Original SoupMan's help in these difficult economic times. Given that 1.3 million New Yorkers are forced to use emergency feeding programs every year, however, we continue to stress that the federal government is the only entity capable of ending hunger. Citizens can and must push President Obama and his administration to fulfill their campaign promises to end child hunger by 2015 as a down payment on ending all domestic hunger. We cannot let 'yes, we can' become 'yes, we could have.'

"Although 400 cases of soup will feed about 20,000 people, the media event is also being held to raise awareness of the fact that donations are only a small measure to help the hunger problems in the tri-state area. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger and World Hunger Year both emphasize that the government must increase the availability of food stamps, WIC, affordable housing and other programs.

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