People in Fairfield spent Super Bowl Sunday collecting canned goods and other foods in what has become an annual event.

The event was not a typical tailgate outside of the Assumption Parish Church, but a food drive.

"We always have a ton of leftovers on Super Bowl Sunday, so we figure it's a good day to hit up the parishioners," said Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive Co-Chair Donan Meyer.

Going on every year for two decades, even through the COVID-19 pandemic, the "Tackle Hunger" Souper Bowl Food Drive has turned into a little bit of a local tradition. The collected donations almost filled up an entire U-Haul van.

"Always surprised, always you come in hopeful that it's going to be a success, and then always so wonderful to see people come year after year to see us to say, 'oh, you guys are here again,' and you get to kind of create a relationship with people," said Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive Co-Chair Lara Linsenmeyer.

Participants did not only collect donations just from members of the church on their way to Sunday Mass but from people all over the area.

"It's so easy, you're just at the grocery store, you pick up extra items and you drop them off," Linsenmeyer said.

"The generosity is touching, it does not surprise me, because people want to give and we're just the conduit to that," Meyer said.

While there were all of the usual soups and other canned foods, organizers also asked people to think outside the box: One donated item was a full kit with instructions to make a birthday cake without eggs, oil, or even water.

"It's really kind of neat to kind of go through and see how creative people get and thinking, 'wow, they really step outside the box' and don't just go for the same old thing, so that when they go home, their pantry is filled with variety and different things that they can make meals for their family," Linsenmeyer said.

All the donations will be split between a pair of food pantries: Operation Hope in Fairfield and Blessed Sacrament in Bridgeport.