Empty Bowls: a grassroots movement to bring awareness to the issue of food insecurity

Started in 1990, Empty Bowls is such a lovely idea that it’s easy to see how it has spread far and wide. The concept is a simple one: bring awareness to the issue of hunger through soup bowls. But not just any soup bowl, a hand-made bowl made specifically for a community meal. At an Empty Bowl event, people purchase a one-of-a-kind bowl and then have it filled with their choice of soup made by volunteers. Seeing an array of empty bowls on a table is a striking reminder that there are many people who go without. That, for some people in our neighborhoods, they are uncertain where their next meal will come from. Or how they will fill their or their children’s empty bowls.

Many Empty Bowls events solicit the help of expert potters who donated hand-crafted pieces of art. At the Parker School in Troy, it is the children in the upper middle school who have made beautiful bowls with the help of Parker School art teacher Jen Nelson. Others will be busy preparing soup to fill the bowls. Parents will come to the school and see the bowls their children have crafted. They will buy their children’s bowl to fill with soup and enjoy a meal together. People will be doing the most simple of things: breaking bread together, but the impact is profound. Funds collected during the evening, through the sale of bowls and purchase of soup, along with other donations, will go toward Unity House’s programs that address food insecurity.

Unity House wishes to thank the Parker School Community and especially Jen Nelson, the Parker School art teacher, for hosting an Empty Bowls event to benefit Unity House. Through their dedicated efforts, they are helping to raise awareness and funds for programs that help people in need.