Organizers are placing the final touches on the third annual Empty Bowls fundraising event. The fundraiser on Feb. 13 will benefit the Food Bank of East Alabama.
The fundraiser will be held at Opelika's Denson Drive Recreation Center. The event will begin at 10 a.m., but attendees can come and go until the event ends at 2 p.m.
For a donation of $10, participants at this year's drop-in lunch event can choose a hand-crafted ceramics bowl, in which they will be served soup and bread donated by local restaurants.
Close to $15,000 has been raised by the past two incarnations of the Empty Bowls fundraiser hosted by Auburn and Opelika. Organizers expect this year's event to raise even more, according to Cari Cleckler, an art educations specialist for the City of Auburn.
"We've raised a good deal of money, and all of it goes to the Food Bank of East Alabama," Cleckler said. "One dollar gives someone seven meals. It's amazing what kind of impact you can make with just $1. We hope to actually break our record from last year."According to Martha Henk, director of the Food Bank of East Alabama, the Empty Bowls event has grown over the past two years and now provides substantial support to the food bank.
"It's wonderful to get a handmade bowl — to have something that's made locally — but it's a whole lot more than that," Henk said. "The USDA tells us that one out of every six people who live in the state of Alabama are food insecure. There are more than 66,000 people who fall into that category of 'food insecure' in Lee County alone."
"I see it (the bowl) literally every day," Henk said. "I'm reminded that there are many people in our community that are having trouble filling their bowls every day. It's a good, concrete reminder of that, but it's also a reminder that I can actually do something."
The event is hosted in conjunction between Auburn Parks and Recreation’s Dean Road Ceramics Studio and Opelika Parks and Recreation’s Denson Drive Recreation Center.
Local potters from both studios have been working on the bowls for the events for months, according to Cleckler, and many of the bowls would sell for $30-40 at market value.
The studios will be providing entertainment including a harpist and a guitarist, as well as several potters who will be demonstrating their craft throughout the event.
Empty Bowls is a grassroots organization started in Michigan by two local artists. The project, which has now spread worldwide, uses ceramics to benefit food organizations, from local food pantries and soup kitchens to international charity organizations.
"It's basically education about hunger in our area, potters working together to make hand-made bowls and everyone coming together to give a donation to get a lunch in a hand-made bowl," Cleckler said. "All the proceeds benefit our local food organization."
All of the food for the event will be donated by local restaurants, including Niffer's, Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread and Jim Bob's, according to Sherie Spain, an event organizer and pottery director at the Denson Drive Recreation Center.
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