Empty Bowls is a success at LOHS

By Alex Simpson

Each month the Oregon Food Bank supplies approximately 200,000 people with food boxes. The mission of the Oregon Food Bank is to collect food from farmers, retailers and individuals and then redistribute the food to shelters and soup kitchens across Oregon.

The number of people who seek food in Oregon is alarming. In a one-year period beginning Jun. 2005, the Food Bank served 3.9 million emergency meals. A large percentage of those receiving aid are children, the elderly and disabled people.

"There are hungry people in need of help to put food on the table," ceramics instructor Steve Schiefelbein said.

To help fight hunger, the LOHS ceramics department and Foods and Nutrition classes teamed up to engage in what is known as Empty Bowls. The program has been around for many years and usually is held at large venues with thousands attending.

Ultimately, it was Schiefelbein’s idea to host Empty Bowls at LOHS. At an elective course department meeting earlier in the year, Schiefelbein spoke with Leiann Riggins, the Foods and Nutrition teacher. Possible fundraiser ideas were discussed and Empty Bowls was chosen because it is usually very successful.

"We wanted to raise awareness about ceramics and the foods class," Schiefelbein said. The Empty Bowls program was brought to the high school to help raise awareness of the increasing hunger problem and also to familiarize parents and students with the many elective classes.

Advanced Ceramics students made small bowls out of clay and the food classes prepared soup to fill them with. For $10, an attendee could purchase the bowl filled with soup and then, as a reminder to the ongoing hunger problem, keep the bowl.

Overall, the event proved to be surprisingly successful. Letters were sent to parents of ceramics students and flyers were posted around the school. The good nature of the program allowed for nearly 75 people to attend and more than $700 was raised. The profits were donated to the Oregon Food Bank, which in turn can use the money to purchase additional food and supplies.

However, the money raised will go further than its face value. The Oregon Food Bank can purchase near $6 worth of retail food for every one dollar donated, raising the total to almost $4200.

This is the first year the event has been held at LOHS, and there will be another held next year. Most likely it will be held at the beginning of December 2007. Since the annual canned food drive is held in early December, "We can use it to kick of the canned food drive near year," Schiefelbein said.