‘Empty Bowls’ event to benefit local food program
Sydney Green, “Empty Bowls” event coordinator and Waynesburg University student, shows off one of her hand-crafted bowls she created for the fundraising initiative.
Jennifer Adamson of Adamson Pottery and PA Mug Co. creates a bowl for the “Empty Bowls” event. Adamson is a member of a team that has already made 100 bowls at Adamson Pottery for the event.
WAYNESBURG — What could be better than a hot bowl of soup on a chilly winter day? If enjoying a bowl or two also contributes to seeing that needy children are adequately fed, then the warmth and enjoyment extends to the spirit as well as the body.
For the past two years, the Bonner scholars at Waynesburg University have organized an Empty Bowls campaign, which enables needy Greene County students to continue to participate in the Weekend Food Program in partnership with the Community Foundation of Greene County.
The premise behind Empty Bowls is simple. Potters and other craftspeople, educators and others work with the community to create hand-crafted bowls. Guests are invited to a simple meal of soup and bread. In exchange for a cash donation, guests are asked to keep their bowl as a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world. The money raised is donated to the Greene County Weekend Food Program.
“Now in our third year, we hope to draw between 200 and 250 people to our event,” said Sydney Green, event coordinator and a sophomore nursing student at Waynesburg University from Markleysville.
This year’s Empty Bowls project is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 3 at the National Guard Readiness Center, located at 500 Evergreen Drive in Waynesburg. For $20, patrons can try a variety of soups prepared by the culinary arts students at the Greene County Career and Technology Center in Waynesburg. Accompanying breads will be provided by the Ohiopyle House Café in Fayette County and other donors that may include Rising Creek Bakery of Mt. Morris.
Because patrons will be able to take home a bowl of choice to remind them of the hunger that exists in Greene County and the world, area potters are busy making the needed bowls, each one with a unique design, shape, color and glaze.
A team made up of Jennifer Adamson, Keith Koury from the Greensboro Art Collective, Jessica Brobst, a resident artist at Adamson Pottery and Waynesburg University intern, Daniele Davis, already made about 100 of the bowls at Adamson Pottery in Waynesburg.
Adamson is now inviting volunteers to help paint the bowls at one-hour-long sessions held at her studio, located at 352 South Richhill Street in Waynesburg, from noon to 6 p.m. on March 18 and 19. The sessions are open to the public, and all age groups are invited to participate.
There is no charge to join in the painting sessions and bowls, paint and all other needed materials are included free of charge. To register, phone Jennifer Adamson at 724-998-9161.
Other local potters will be donating even more bowls as well for the April 3 soup fundraiser at the National Guard Readiness Center. Tickets for the event are $15 if bought in advance or $20 at the door the day of the event.
Advance ticket purchases can be made by calling 724-322-1792 or emailing gre0883@student.waynesburg.edu. Tickets can also be purchased in the CSL office on the first floor of the Stover Student Center at Waynesburg University or at the Community Foundation of Greene County, 108 E. High Street in Waynesburg.
At the event, 12 Bonner scholars from Waynesburg University will set up and serve the soups and clean up at the end of the day.
“We’re still looking for additional soup and bread donations,” Green said.
To donate, call Green at 724-322-1792.
All funds raised at Empty Bowls will go to support the Weekend Food program, which gives shelf-stable, child-friendly food items such as fruit juice, cereal, granola bars, apple sauce packets, crackers and cheese and pretzels to elementary school children in the county’s five school districts.
The children are those identified by teachers, the school social worker or food service employees who look for signs of not having adequate nutrition such as tiredness and crankiness.
After a child is identified, the school district asks the parents for consent to have their child participate in the program.
Empty Bowls first started in 1990 as a ceramic class project at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and has now spread across the United States and other nations.
“Empty Bowls is now an annual national project with potters across the country participating in their own neighborhoods,” Green said. “Now that we’ve moved to a larger location (the National Guard Readiness Center), we’re hoping to attract more people.”