Empty Bowls helping to fill Floyd County children’s backpacks with food

by Wanda Combs
Editor

Tickets are on sale now for Empty Bowls Sunday, March 21, in the community room of The Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd. The event is now in its third year.
Diners choose a hand thrown bowl to keep and in which to receive their homemade soup. Lunch also includes bread and a dessert. The meal is served from 11:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.
Proceeds from the fundraiser go to support New River Community Action’s Backpack Project in Floyd County Schools. This year, 72 are enrolled in the program, which serves Floyd County Schools and the Head Start program.

The Project sends meals home in backpacks every week. The children receive the backpacks on Fridays before they leave school, and the backpacks are filled with food – two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners and snacks – to last them through the weekend.
Empty Bowls is the main fundraiser for the Backpack Project. The cost to supply each backpack for a weekend is approximately $15.
The organizers for Empty Bowls are hoping for a good turnout on March 21. With the economic downturn, “there is more need than ever before,” said Karen Day of Empty Bowls.
Local potters and others across the state contributed 450 bowls for the event.
Advance tickets are $10 and are on sale at the Jacksonville Center and WildFire Studio (located in the Sun building).

Tickets are $15 at the door. Cost for children’s meals for ages 6-12 is $5. Children age five and under eat for free.
The event is a community effort. The flyer and tickets were made by Angela Myers’s photography classes at Floyd County High School (FCHS). Dessert will be made by the culinary students of Debbie Carter at FCHS.
Twenty-four soup makers will be participating. Soup favorites from last year will be returning, along with some new ones. Several bread makers will also help with the meal.
If you would like to contribute but cannot attend Empty Bowls, your donation will be welcome.
Checks for all ticket purchases and donations should be made payable to New River Community Action.
For more information call 745-2102.

Caption:
Ready for the event are volunteers Pat Shelor, Karen Day, John Getgood, and McCabe Coolidge. The group stands in front of the Floyd County Chamber of Commerce office, which features some of the hand thrown bowls in a window display.                                                              Photo by Wanda Combs