Empty Bowls Supper Raises More Than $10K for Hunger Relief

The following was provided to Patch by the Agnes Irwin School:

More than 450 people attended the Empty Bowls Supper at The Agnes Irwin School on Feb. 22, netting more than $10,000 for hunger relief initiatives.

Empty Bowls is an international grassroots effort to end hunger. Community members craft bowls, and guests are invited to attend a simple supper, make a cash donation, and in exchange take one of the bowls home — with event proceeds donated to anti-hunger programs.

Agnes Irwin and The Haverford School have held a bi-annual Empty Bowls Supper for more than a dozen years. This year, the schools invited The Baldwin School to participate as well. Organized by the student service boards at Agnes Irwin, Haverford and Baldwin, the evening consisted of a soup dinner prepared by students under the direction of Chef Carlo Demarco of 333 Belrose, as well as performances by student a capella groups, raffles and a silent auction.

“Starting in the fall, students in each of our schools began making ceramic bowls and talking about hunger as something that too many people contend with,” Agnes Irwin Director of Service Learning Sarah Kinder said on Sunday evening. “As you’ll see from the variety of bowls and items, we each approached the task in our own unique way.”

The three schools have also come together on the issue of hunger throughout the year. On Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, middle school students from Agnes Irwin, Haverford and Baldwin participated in Stop Hunger Now, preparing 20,000 meals to be sent to children in communities battling Ebola.

“Empty Bowls is the culminating event for our year long themes of hunger, homelessness, and poverty,” a press release written by the schools’ three service boards explains. “These are topics that are much closer to home than one may think, found everywhere from City Hall to where our schools reside on the Main Line. The statistics are sobering, but we hope that through Empty Bowls, that we can not only help the thousand of hungry, destitute people in our community, but can also transform our own students.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit local organizations engaged in the fight against hunger, including the Ardmore Food Pantry and Project HOME.

“The beautiful ceramic bowls you take home today are symbolic,” Kinder told the more than 400 people in attendance on Sunday. “They serve as a reminder that today we came together as a community and filled many bowls beyond the confines of this space.”