Empty Bowl banquet to help feed hungry:

Project SERVE event aims to raise awareness of homeless

By Jacquelyn Nixon

Daily Staff Reporter

Hoping to emphasize the urgency of hunger, Project SERVE's Education and Awareness Team will hold an Empty Bowl Charity Banquet tomorrow night.

Event Coordinator Payel Gupta said banquet organizers "want students to be more aware of homelessness and hunger in our area."

The Empty Bowl concept was initiated at Lahser High School in the fall of 1990 by ceramics teacher John Hartom and his wife Lisa Blackburn.

Hartom's students made and sold ceramic bowls to raise money for an existing Thanksgiving fundraiser the school was holding for Detroit area food banks.

The first Empty Bowl charity was held August 1991 and since then it has spread across the United States.

Detroit Country Day ceramics teacher John Schwartz began the Empty Bowl Charity at his school in 1993 after hearing about the success of Hartom's project.

"When we started the event at our school, we had the students make the bowls and soon learned that it was easier to mass produce them," Schwartz said.

Last year Schwartz and other teachers from Country Day and schools in Detroit made 14,000 bowls for their lunchtime serving.

"The profits last year went to Gleaners Food Bank. The event always brings in a good amount of money," Schwartz said.

"It's more of a community awareness activity. We brought awareness that people were hungry and homeless in Detroit, even as close to home as Southfield.

We were giving them an opportunity to have at least one meal," Schwartz said.

Hartom's idea of making bowls has changed during the last nine years. At different venues, the charities have opted for styrofoam bowls and a full meal rather than the original clay bowl with soup.

The event, which is the first time an Empty Bowl function will take place at the University, is planned for tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in the Michigan Union Kuenzel Room.

The entrance fee of $8 includes dinner, a small concert, and guest speakers.

The event is sponsored by Project SERVE's Education and Awareness Team with the help of the Alpha Iota Omicron fraternity, Michigan Leadership Initiatives and Circle K. The co-ed a capella group Gimble will be performing.

Lin Orrin, fund development director of Ann Arbor Shelters and Gupta, Project SERVE Hunger and Homelessness Coordinator are scheduled to speak. There will also be a slide show presented by the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County.

The Shelter Association of Washtenaw County and Bread for the World will be among the charities that may be chosen for donations.