The Carroll County Soup Kitchen and the Empty Bowls planning team made the difficult decision a few weeks ago to go with a virtual event this year again. More than a fundraiser, Empty Bowls draws together a diverse group of people—artists, potters, restaurateurs, home chefs, musicians, and volunteers of all ages.
Last year Empty Bowls raised nearly as much as previous years for the Soup Kitchen through donations, even without the bowls and soup that make this gathering unique and so beloved. The team at Empty Bowls believes they can count on the community again this year to come through for our neighbors. The ministry offered through the all-volunteer Carroll County Soup Kitchen is vital for those who experience hunger and hardship in our community. The kitchen depends on in-kind and financial donations to keep serving hot meals, providing bags of groceries, and making a difference.
With the pandemic, the Soup Kitchen has continued to operate as a drive-thru and delivery ministry, serving meals and giving out food three days a week throughout 2021. Over the last year, the Soup Kitchen served 14,261 hot meals and gave out 6,237 sacks of groceries. Each sack contains the equivalent of 4 meals for a total of almost 25,000 meals. In the last year, volunteers delivered almost 6,000 meals to elderly and disabled neighbors in our community. All this food comes to around 125,000 pounds!
The Empty Bowls event is the only major fundraiser for the Soup Kitchen. Like the Soup Kitchen, Empty Bowls happens through the generosity of its volunteers and its sponsor partners, The Carrollton Center for the Arts and Keep Carroll Beautiful. In addition, hundreds of individuals and local businesses become sponsors by giving $100 or more. This year, they are planning a virtual art auction on February 27 on the Empty Bowls Facebook page, which can be accessed by clicking here.
Carroll County is home to an amazing community of artists who provide beautiful pottery soup bowls and other pieces each year. You can stay up to date on how to bid and where to buy soup bowls on their Facebook page.
Empty Bowls got its start with Carol Boyd and a local potter, Helen Helwig, who had been part of an Empty Bowls event where she had lived before. From that first event, which raised just enough money for a new dishwasher for the Soup Kitchen, Empty Bowls has grown into a much beloved gathering of people who love soup and a good cause. Even though they still can’t gather in person, we all can gather in our hearts and spirits around the ministry of the Carroll County Soup Kitchen, now serving our community for more than 30 years. We’re still living in hard times, but with the love and generosity that Empty Bowls inspires, we can make the times a little easier for our neighbors.In a recent sermon local Pastor, Karen Kagiyama shared about working with the Carroll County Soup Kitchen, “When I get those bags of food, they’re really heavy; and that heaviness is love.” She continued, “Empty Bowls helps us give love. It may yet be a while before we can end this pandemic, but we can end a little boy’s hunger today. We can love our neighbors as we have been loved. You can give at www.carrollcountysoupkitchen.org.”
