A neighbor, co-worker or stranger on the street -- any one of these people may be suffering from food insecurities and worrying about when their next meal will be.
Organizations in the community are raising awareness about hunger issues in Auburn with the Second Annual Empty Bowls Event on Feb. 7. The event will be from 5-7 p.m. at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center.
Auburn Parks and Recreation's Dean Road Ceramics Studio and Opelika Parks and Recreation's Denson Drive Recreation Center will host the event, sponsored by the Auburn Arts Association.
"We're going to have a beautiful array of different styles, different kinds of bowls and people come and they select the bowl they want," said Amy Kaiser, independent studio member at Dean Road Ceramics Studio and one of the artists for the event. "We fill it with soup, they sit down and eat (the soup) and then the bowls will be wiped out and they'll carry them home as a reminder that there are empty bowls all over town that need to be filled. It's a reminder that there are hungry people in this very town."
Tickets to the event are $20 and the proceeds will go to the Food Bank of East Alabama.
Cari Cleckler, art education specialist at Dean Road Ceramics Studio, said they want to sell 300 tickets this year.
The event was hosted in Opelika last year, and organizers plan to change the venue between Auburn and Opelika each year.
"Last year, it was a walk-in and walk-out event sort of thing, where it was like a reception style," Cleckler said. "This year, we're actually treating it like a banquet dinner because we want to make sure ... both events are very different so that we can always entertain the crowd."
This year's event will have a silent auction with wood items, ceramics, candles and work from local and regional artists.
There will also be live music and a skit preformed by the Auburn Area Community Theater.
"You get soup and bread to symbolize what poor people eat, and during that time, the lady from the food bank will be doing a talk and telling where the money that we collected will go for feeding the hungry," said Sherie Spain, pottery director at the Opelika Parks and Recreation Department.
Restaurants donating soup are Chick-fil-A, Niffer's Place, Jim 'N Nick's BBQ Restaurant, Irish Bred Pub and Restaurant, Village Cookery and Panera Bread.
"Because we live in such a wonderful community like Auburn, it's easy to forget that there are really truly people who are suffering from food insecurities," Cleckler said. "We are so fortunate that we always do not think, necessarily, about the people who definitely do not know where their next meal will come from."
Auburn University students, professors, potters and people such as Kaiser are some of the artists donating their time and skills to creating the bowls.
"It's such a great collaborative effort between Auburn and Opelika," Cleckler said. "Everybody is donating and giving of their talents."
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