Next time you go up for seconds, consider the people who have yet to have firsts. This was the premise of Hunger Week's Empty Bowls Banquet, held Tuesday, Oct. 16.
The banquet was organized by the Committee of 19 and spearheaded by Vice-President Azeem Ahmed, senior in finance.
The room was set and decorated in a banquet style, but substituting a particularly fancy meal were empty bowls placed at each seat.
"It is basically to remind everybody of the empty bowls around the world," said Cara Tupps, senior in microbiology and fundraising facilitator for the Committee of 19. "Our students have made the ceramic bowls, decorated them, hand-crafted. You take a bowl and you fill it with food, and you eat."
The art department and the College of Agriculture originally organized the event. The College of Agriculture donated its Heritage Park and the art department hand-made all the bowls.
Tiger Dining provided the soup and The Hotel at Auburn University donated the dinner rolls. Everything, down to the plastic utensils, was donated.
"The main thing about Empty Bowls is even though our bowls will have food in it, it is in honor of the people who go to bed at night with their bowls empty, which is over a billion people," Ahmed said. "While the meal is simple and is filling, it is simple enough that you will remember that the people don't even get that in their bowls. So that's the main idea"
The Banquet is based on a larger initiative of the Empty Bowls Project in an international grassroots movement against hunger.
All of the proceeds from the banquet will be given to the East Alabama Food Bank.
"East Alabama Food Bank, a lot of people don't realize, does so much and they serve so many entities," said attendee Abby Porter, senior accounting major. Porter is a frequent food bank volunteer.
"We are raising all this food and money for the East Alabama Food Bank which is facing incredible amount of need, especially in the economic downturn, but in the last year particularly," Ahmed said.
Carey Bayless, senior in English and creative writing, is an advocacy and awareness facilitator for the Committee of 19. Bayless recognizes the banquet's place in creating responsiveness to hunger.
"What we do has eternal worth and eternal purpose," Bayless said. "There are people starving here in Opelika, our backyard. Lee County is actually the second hungriest county in Alabama, and people don't know that. Committee of 19 exists to fight hunger through advocacy and awareness, service and fundraising."
Martha Henk, executive director of the food bank, is returning for her second year and recognizes the statement Empty Bowls is making.
"I really appreciate it," Henk said. "The bowl that I purchased that evening is a bowl that sits in my kitchen, and it serves as a constant reminder that while I was fortunate enough to have it filled with food when I ate at the event, I am very mindful of the people out there who do have empty bowls and do not have that same opportunity. So personally, I find it to be very meaningful; that serves to me as an ongoing reminder."
Henk said that banquet proceeds to the food bank will be used to support its Backpack program for children to be launched within a month.
"It will be a real impact on helping us get that program launched," Henk said.
Vice President for Student Affairs Ainsley Carry, who works closely with school leaders like the Committee of 19, helped preside over the event.
"I thought it was a great event, a good turnout, and I'm excited it's about awareness," Carry said. "It means more people will know what's going on. I think it was short and sweet and right to the point."
The event was successful, with 150 people in attendance.
The success has motivated Ahmed to keep the event going.
"We really like to double our number every year," Ahmed said. "We have been doing this in the past, and people have really come to know us. We have a lot of good partners in the community, so we are hoping to it expand it. Unfortunately, I really hope the need for it isn't there, but realistically it probably will be, so we will continue whatever we can."
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