Fight against hunger alleviated with Empty Bowls

This spring Empty Bowls makes its return to Carmel High after an excellent turnout in 2014, raising over $8,000, with the fundraising soup-and-bread dinner set for April 30.

A perfect opportunity to incorporate high schoolers and teachers alike in a nonprofit organization, Empty Bowls has been feeding thousands of families all around the world for the past 25 years. The project, run by ASB secretary Diana Vita is highly effective and brings great support to the school’s long-promoted nonprofit organization known as Ag Against Hunger.

“The project has three folds,” explains Vita. “All the kids get community service hours and knowledge of how to fight world hunger, the people supporting the soup-and-bread supper enjoy a great meal, and all the money goes to charity.”

Not only is it a great time using sculpting skills to hand-make the ceramic bowls, but students get a hands-on opportunity to make a difference in the community, and even the world.

Senior Solen Bernadeau, a second-time participant of Empty Bowls, recollects her experience from last year, saying that it gives a sense a purpose knowing that, despite all the fun, students are making a huge impact on people’s lives.

“I thought it was very interesting because there were many different events at the same time, and a lot of people were there,” Bernadeau describes.

The on-campus help in the bowl-making this year was provided by all the freshman Global Studies classes, as well as the U.S. History classes for juniors.

The students aren’t the only ones benefitting from spending a class period doing extracurriculars because making bowls is just as enjoyable for the teachers.

“Instead of being in a classroom type of environment, we got to go and do hands-on things outside of the constant geography work,” says Global Studies teacher Jillayne Ange about last year’s Empty Bowls. “It was really fun—I made three bowls.”

Though the project was a great success last year, students and teachers seek an even better outcome this year now that they have experienced the hectic energy that comes with hundreds of students making bowls in an assembly-line type of environment.

Activities director Leigh Cambra agrees that the atmosphere is much more controlled this year, and the creativity in the designs for the bowls has improved too.

“This was the second year of bowl-making,” Cambra says, “and you can tell that the creativity was at a higher level. People seem to be really into it and come up with some really unusual and cool bowls. It’s great to see!”

Tickets for the event went on sale Wednesday and are available for purchase from Diana Vita in the ASB office. The dinner will be held on campus starting at 5 p.m. on April 30.

For a fee of $20 per person, anyone can have the privilege of enjoying a wonderful meal and taking one of the hand-made bowls home to remember the contribution.
-Lennie Rodriguez