Empty Bowls

I was recently contacted by the hunger-relief charity that I had previously made a donation to. After conversing with one of the volunteers it became apparent that my donation alone had made a resonating impact in my state.

I had organized and hosted my very own Empty Bowls event. I brought together the community around me and raised both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger. The concept is simple, an event is held where hand made ceramic bowls can be purchased and filled with soup, with all the proceeds going to hunger-relief charities.

After going to an Empty Bowls in a neighboring city, I decided to host my own event, inspired by creating a change through art. At the time, I had been throwing pottery in a class for 4 years and had established good relations with both my peers and instructor. After hearing of my plan, both instructor and peers graciously helped me by throwing bowls that they donated to my event (throwing is the process of wedging , centering, and opening the clay on a pottery wheel).

I contacted the owner of a beautiful venue in town and coordinated a date that I could host my event. I started creating flyers and posting them everywhere in my city as well as on social media sites. The word was getting out there and everything was coming together, but I still needed to feed the guests that would attend. I turned to the best chefs in my friends and family and was grateful for their support.

Over a few months my pottery shelf was taking on a much heavier load!

The date of the event finally arrived in late October and I began early that morning shuttling the 200+ bowls I had made and accumulated across town (this was one of the hardest parts of the whole event, I recall breaking two of the bowls in the process of loading and unloading).

Finally the bowls were in place, the soup was steaming, and friends and strangers were pouring through the doors!

What a night! I was overwhelmed with the feeling of accomplishment as I successfully hosted my own Empty Bowls. I raised over $1,800 that I donated to a hunger-relief charity creating over 6,800 meals!

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What a difference we can make! I realized when on the phone with the food bank volunteer just how much of an impact I created. You too can make a difference in this world and be the change you wish to see!