Empty Bowls Community Dinner Set for February 23

The 6^th annual Empty Bowls community dinner to benefit Talbot County food pantries will be held Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, from 5 p.m. to 7 pm.  Presented by Empty Bowls, Talbot County the goal of the dinner, in the words of co-chair Anna Harding, “Is to recognize the very serious problem of hunger in our community and then find a way to help alleviate it on a local basis.”

In case of inclement weather the event will be held March 2. Tickets go on sale January 6, 2014.

Community support for the dinner continues to grow. The event has sold out for the past three years.  Last year over 220 people were served and the event raised a record- breaking $10,000. Since it began the event has raised over $36,000. All the money from ticket sales goes to the food pantries. The soups, bread, butter, desserts, flowers, music and printing are all donated by local individual and businesses. It is planned and staffed by volunteers.

Tickets must be bought in advance and can be purchased by mailing a check for $20 per person to the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, 102 E. Dover Street, Easton, MD 21601. Checks should be made payable to Mid-Shore/Empty Bowls.  A phone number should be included. Tickets can also be purchased at www.mscf.org. Then click on the “events” button at the bottom of the page. Donations can also be made either by check or on-line.

The dinner is held at Immanuel Lutheran Church Hall 7215 Ocean Gateway, Easton, MD 21601 (on the westbound lane of Rt. 50, west of the Maryland State Police barracks).

For the price of the ticket, dinner guests choose a bowl (to keep) from the hundreds that have been painted at Clay Bakers, donated by local potters, or, new this year, bowls made and decorated by art students  from Easton High School, St. Michaels Middle-High School and Easton Middle School.  The bowl selection process is a very special part of the event. With so many bowls to choose from, it’s not easy finding the perfect one!  Often people come looking for the bowl they or their family and friends have created. Once chosen, the bowl will be filled with soup from a wide selection of soups and chili (including vegetarian options).  Guests are welcome to enjoy unlimited servings.  Bread, cider and dessert round out the meal.

The cornerstone of this grassroots effort is the volunteers.  This includes the 25-30 generous soup makers affectionately called “soupers”.  Masterfully coordinated by souper-visor Susan Wilford, many of them have participated in every dinner. On the day of the event they parade into the venue bearing crock pots and tureens of steaming soups and chilis. Susan says “I love to participate because it fulfills my desire to be of service to the community. And, it has allowed me to meet so many new and incredibly generous people. Every year I contact the previous year’s soup makers and give them the opportunity to bow out. They rarely do.”  Local restaurants are also joining in the effort.  Last year Bartlett Pear restaurant contributed soup. This year it looks like the number of participating restaurants will increase at least eightfold.

An equally generous batch of volunteer bakers provide the dessert. Other volunteers, including high school students, handle the setting up and putting away of tables, chairs, decorations, bowls and all the accoutrements as well as hosting and serving at the dinner.

The proceeds from the dinner go entirely to local food pantries. This past spring members of the Empty Bowls committee personally delivered checks from the dinner’s proceeds to the pantries.  It brought home, yet again, both the need for the pantries and the dedication and innovation of those who volunteer at them.  At the Presbyterian Church pantry, we spoke with pantry volunteers Caroline Sproule and Mary Beth Goll, two of the 11 Mission Committee members that oversee the pantry. They said the pantry typically feeds 60-70 families a month and that the mission of the Mission Committee is to “Help those in need help themselves.” In keeping with the mission, a community run vegetable garden is underway.  Most of the 20 beds have been built and they expect to have church neighbors planting this spring.

The magnitude of the need the pantries serve may be surprising to many in the community. The Neighborhood Service Center is another of  the participating pantries. It serves about 300 families per month, each family representing from one to 10 people.  One of the center’s clients had this to say about the value of the service it provides: “This helps because of how food stamps and other benefits are being cut and by being a single veteran over 50 this really helps to supplement the benefits it makes it where you don’t always worry about your next meal. Thank you very much.”

 It is comments like these that prompted the event organizers to think about how they could raise more funds for the pantries. After all, only so much money could be raised from the dinner itself.  Co-chair Susan duPont said, “We need to think of ways that we can expand the event without losing the intimacy of the dinner and the community spirit.”   So, this year Empty Bowls is introducing a range of sponsorship opportunities.  “In the past we were fortunate to have a limited number of generous sponsors but this year we are making a concerted effort to increase that number,” said duPont.  Sponsorships start at $250 and increase from there.  Sponsors receive acknowledgement at the dinner and in other event materials.  As of December sponsors at the Dutch Oven Level ($1,000+) are Curry Wilford, senior vice president and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley, and Steven T. Hamblin. Sponsors at the Cup of Soup level ($250+) are the Easton Ruritan Club, Sherwood Ford of Salisbury, Wye Financial &Trust,  and Mr. and Mrs. J. Scott Wimbrow.  For information about sponsorship opportunities contact Susan duPont at [email protected].

 Long-time Empty Bowls collaborator, Clay Bakers in Easton, is again supporting Empty Bowls by sponsoring special bowl decorating.  StartingJan. 1 and running through Feb. 18, 2014, for a price as low as $12, Clay Bakers’ customers can choose from a selection of bowls, which they paint in their own style. Talbot County Empty Bowls receives the decorated bowl and a portion of the fee. Bowl decorating groups of 10 or more can make an advance reservation. Clay Bakers is at 1 S. Washington Street in Easton. For more information, call 410-770-9091.

 Food pantries at Asbury Methodist Church, Scott’s United Methodist Church, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Neighborhood Service Center, Presbyterian Church, and the St. Michaels Food Pantry, among others, share the proceeds from the dinner.

 The Talbot County Empty Bowls event is modeled after the first fundraiser, the brainchild of John Hartom, a North Carolina high school art teacher. In 1990, Hartom challenged his art students to make enough ceramic bowls to host a meal for the school faculty. During the meal, Hartom and his wife, Lisa Blackburn, also an art educator, reminded the group that, even though they were not hungry because they had just eaten, many in the community still had empty bowls.

 The guests were invited to keep their soup bowls as a reminder of those less fortunate. This event evolved into the non-profit organization Empty Bowls, which now raises millions of dollars for hunger-related causes around the world. Co-chair Harding  states, “Our hope is that the bowl will remind you that someone else’s bowl is often empty and that you will be moved to continue to support  those organizations who are working every day to feed those in need in throughout Talbot  County.”