What is Empty Bowls?

Hopkins Public Scool art teacher and Hopkins community education leader have created our local empty bowl raising campaign by being driven by the passion for creativity and the desire for the neighbor we need. Since 1999, art students and local pottery have made hundreds of unique soup bowls for ResourceWest and ICA food rack activities. In the past 18 years, the event raised $ 1,010,008 to support the neighbors we need. The 19th fundraising event will be held at Hopkins Art Center on March 7, 2017!

ICA food shelf serves seven communities in Hopkins and Minnetonka, and its surrounding areas. The food shelf provides food, financial and homeless prevention services and employment aid to more than 850 families using monthly ICA programs. In 2015, more than 47 million pounds of food were distributed through a selection-based model food rack. It also offers a weekend food and snack program for Hopkins and Minnetonka schools for students in need. The Mobile Food Shelf program helps more than 300 physically handicapped neighbors get perishable food every week

Located in the heart of Hopkins, ResourceWest is working on connecting and stabilizing individuals and families within Western Metro through social services, youth programs, and on-site collaboration programs. ResourceWest provides more than 10,000 resource connections annually for those seeking food, housing, medical care, employment, education, transportation etc. In 2015, ResourceWest provided school supplies, warm clothes for winter, holiday gifts to over 1,200 children. The Social Services program offers 36 subsidies for vehicle maintenance, prescription, child rearing. Families with more than 800 crises caused by homelessness, sudden loss of income, health problems, or traffic problems received short-term case management assistance

Over the past five years I have helped Adriana and Neena neighbors make empty bowls in a shared courtyard in Oakland, California. The basic purpose of Empty Bowls is to collect funds for our local food bank, the Alameda County Community Food Bank. We were very successful in this field (this year we gathered over $ 10,000!), The sky bowl is more than just collecting checks and counting the total. Empty bowls build and strengthen our community, support our local artists, celebrate delicious dishes and beautiful pottery, and educate people about hunger and poverty

Most food banks need to know what it is because the empty bowl is a popular fundraising event. In fact, especially if you are in a larger city, do not be surprised if your food bank has its own empty bowl. Unfortunately, there is always a need to raise funds to fight starvation, so if your community already has an empty bowl, do not stop it. There is no reason not to participate in many of these activities. In many cases, food banks provide useful materials on how to implement an event, or at least how to cope when an event occurs. Sometimes they can even send employees to events to talk about or distribute hunger, food insecurity, and ways to support their food for human beings.

None of this changed the fact that people are hungry and food insecure in all communities while more and more sky bowl events and the amount of money collected in multiple ways showed success . John and Lisa realized that the sky bowl could not solve hunger, but they said "The sky bowl project brings consciousness and can bring people together and solve the starving problem" I believe. As for the influence of the anniversary, "I certainly do not need to do this, so I do not expect a 20th anniversary day." Still, they know that today's hunger is still very common in dealing with food insecurity. John and Lisa expect that The Empty Bowls Project and Imagine Render will continue to give good social impact to hunger by raising funds and raising awareness of the community.