It’s a simple yet effective recipe.
First, you take your potters, your craftspeople, your teachers and others, then you mix them together really good with people throughout the community who cotton to the idea of making handcrafted bowls for a good cause.
Then, you invite your guests to a simple meal of bread and soup in these same bowls.
Soup, organizers say, that is bound to warm the stomach – and the soul.
In exchange for a $15 cash donation, you ask your guests to keep a bowl, a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world. Then you donate all the money you’ve raised to a local organization working to end hunger and food insecurity.
In Auburn, that organization is The Auburn Food Bank.
For four years now, local artists, businesses and restaurants have made the Empty Bowls fundraiser part of Auburn’s spring landscape.
This year’s shindig starts at 11 a.m. and ends 2 p.m. Friday, May 2, at Grace Community Church, 1320 Auburn Way S.
Attendees may buy a soup bowl handmade by students and professional potters for that minimum donation. Customers have a choice of soup from among those donated by local restaurants and schools.
All told, the donation gets a body a handcrafted pottery or wood bow to keep. All food – soup, bread, cookies and beverages – is donated by local restaurants and the culinary arts students at Auburn’s high schools.
Potters and woodworkers donate bowls, and the ceramics department at Green River Community College holds an annual “bowl throw” to supply bowls for the event.
“It’s a great opportunity to put our own hearts into the cause and actually have bowls that come from our imagination, and just be able to bless the people who could use a little boost,” said one GRCC student. “The economy has been hard for everyone, and it takes a community to take care of each other.”
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Come hungry
• What: Empty Bowls fundraiser for Auburn Food Bank
• When: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.Friday, May 2, 2014
• Where: Grace Community Church, 1320 Auburn Way S.
• How much: a $15 suggested donation
• More information: The Auburn Food Bank at 253-833-8925 or www.theauburnfoodbank.org