There’s only one event where filling your bowl can help fill someone’s else’s.
Empty Bowls, a fundraising event put on by Ponoka Family and Community Support Services (FCSS), was a delicious success on Oct. 22 at the Ponoka Legion.
The annual event, which raises funds for the Ponoka Food Bank as well as awareness for food insecurity, is now 17-years strong and “warms bodies and hearts” says Shelly Van Eaton, FCSS program coordinator.
“The bowls were beautiful and the event was wonderful … we have an amazing community.”
The roughly 210 handmade clay bowls, crafted by the clever hands of the Ponoka Potters Guild’s members, are donated to the event.
For $20, participants got to choose a unique bowl to take home and enjoyed a bowl of soup from one of five local businesses who help with the event each year.
Soup was donated from Bob and Company Catering, the Hitchin’ Post, the Old Iron Horse, Ranchers Castle and the Raspberry Patch and Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church donated buns.
Varieties of soup to sample included cream of mushroom, Italian wedding, a “clean-out-the-fridge” cauliflower and cheese, dill pickle, beef and barley, french onion soup and clam chowder.
FCSS supplied strawberry shortcake for dessert, the rental of the facility and purchased the clay for the Potters Guild, as well as advertising for the event.
About 170 people attended the lunch, from Ponoka and other neighbouring communities, and by the end just 25 bowls were left.
It will be a couple of weeks before the amount raised will be known, although Van Eaton expects it will be similar to last year’s event, which raised about $2,400.
An interagency meeting was held before the lunch, for community partners to discuss current issues and brainstorm possible solutions.
Concerns during that meeting, as well as around the tables during the lunch, were about the struggling economy and the recent federal election.
“I think the awareness of hunger in our own backyard and worldwide is being more known,” said Van Eaton.
Some groups also set up information tables for attendees to browse.
The Ponoka Potters Guild is hosting a winter show and sale on Dec. 6 from 2 to 8 p.m. and on Dec. 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the “pink school” located at 4900 54 St., Entrance A.
Admission is free and tours of the facility will be available.
