Empty bowls lunch to benefit food bank

Howell High School will host event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 5

BY PATRICIA YOCZIS Correspondent

HOWELL – How does an empty bowl feed the hungry? When the bowl is one of many hand-crafted bowls that are bought by guests during an annual empty bowls event.

Howell High School, Squankum-Yellowbrook Road, will host an empty bowls event on April 5.

“One empty bowl at a time is the way to fight hunger in our community,” said Mildred Wexler-Kobrinski, a local potter and artist in Colts Neck who is coordinating the event. “It’s a great way to have students think of others who need food.”

According to Wexler-Kobrinski, the event includes Freehold Regional High School District students creating the hand-decorated ceramic bowls on a potter’s wheel and then having the bowls baked in a kiln. Local organizations donate supplies and the food that makes the soup that is served in the bowls. Residents select a bowl for the soup and make a donation that benefits the FoodBank ofMonmouth and Ocean Counties, Neptune. Each participant keeps the bowl that he or she selected as a reminder of the hunger that exists in the community.

Wexler-Kobrinski said the empty bowls event has a special meaning this year since it is dedicated to the memory of Ilana Schaffer, a Howell High School graduate and a former pottery student of hers.

“Ilana really would have loved this event,” Wexler-Kobrinski said.

The empty bowls concept first came to mind when Wexler-Kobrinski needed a community-based project for her master of fine arts degree from Goddard College in Vermont. The combination of art and helping the hungry appealed to her.

The Internet Web site www.emptybowls. net states that the empty bowls concept originated with a high school art teacher and students inMichigan in 1990. Since then it is has grown internationally and fundraising projects have raised millions to help stamp out hunger.

Wexler-Kobrinski said she would love empty bowls to be part of the curriculum of all schools with business students managing the finances, art students of all medias contributing, the culinary students preparing the food and all students sharing their talents to help make the event a success.

“What a powerful concept when students and community members sit together and share a meal that serves as a reminder that someone nearby goes without food,” she said.

So far, she said there are about 300 bowls completed with another 100 bowls in the works. To date the companies that have contributed include Whole Foods, Red Bank, Ceramic Supplies, Lodi, Avis Rental and Staples, Freehold.

Eileen Stoner, the service learning coordinator for the Colts Neck K-8 School District, said Cedar Drive Middle School, Colts Neck, pupils created about 25 ceramic bowls that were baked in Wexler- Kobrinski’s kiln and donated them to the empty bowls event.

“It was part of the school’s overall project to help the hungry,” she said. “Open Door, a Freehold food pantry, received funds from the school’s other projects to help the hungry.”

The project coordinators were Jessica Grippoldi and Kathy Godlesky, both seventh grade teachers.

Barbara Scholz, the development director for the FoodBank ofMonmouth and Ocean Counties, said the money raised from the April 5 empty bowls event at Howell High School will help feed local people, including the working poor, through the more than 250 organizations that receive food from the food bank, including shelters, after-school programs, soup kitchens and food pantries such as Open Door.

“Last year about 3.4 million pounds of food was distributed,” Scholz said. “Already this year we know we need more. Donations are down and the need is higher.”

Scholz said people are generous at the holidays, but forget about the times in between, especially the summer when donations drop significantly. The empty bowls event is really a great fundraiser, she said.

Last year’s event was held at Colts Neck High School and netted the food bank close to $3,000.

This year’s empty bowls event will take place at Howell High School from 11 a m. to 4 p.m. April 5. The suggested donation is $10 for soup, bread, dessert and beverage, plus the ceramic bowl.

For further information, to make donations or to volunteer for the event, call Mildred Wexler-Kobrinski at (732) 409- 0559.