Chowing down on a bowl of hearty soup will benefit the Ponoka Food Bank during the annual Empty Bowl fundraiser.
The event takes place Oct. 23 at the Baptist Church from 11:30 to 1:30 and the soups are donated by Cilantro and Chive.
Each meal costs $20 and the beautiful bowls, crafted by the Ponoka Potters Guild, are participants’ to keep. “They make quite a few gorgeous bowls,” said Shannon Boyce-Campbell, executive director at FCSS.
“It’s sort of a grassroots approach to bring awareness to the community,” said Boyce-Campbell.
“The idea of Empty Bowls is so simple, so elegant and graspable. It has entered the practice of potters internationally and in doing so has connected us in a web of social meaning and action,” explains Jackie Seaton, a salt-glaze potter who helped start Empty Bowls in Perth, Ont.
Since the program began in 2002 more than 7,500 handmade bowls have been exchanged for donations totaling $150,000. Seaton wants Canadians to remember food doesn’t just nourish the body, it nourishes the social aspects of life itself and Empty Bowls is a way for communities to come together to celebrate what they have and what they can do to help others.