Empty Bowls, an annual luncheon event benefitting Oxford’s Food Pantry, will be celebrating its 13th year in Oxford from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at Oxford-University United Methodist Church.
Admission is $20 and includes soup, water and a ceramic bowl created by a local artist.
Empty Bowls is an international grassroots movement to help end hunger. Oxford’s event is a cumulative volunteer effort from people all over the community.
The bowls used for the event are made and donated by the UM Mud Daubers, a group of advanced student ceramicists, and other local artists.
Professor Matt Long works with the Mud Daubers and said there were 16 potters helping to make bowls for this year’s event.
“It is not for a class, but it is a voluntary event,” Long said. “We welcome anyone who can make a bowl.”
The project made its way to Oxford in 2003 when former Ceramics Professor Ron Dale approached former Food Pantry manager June Rosentreter with the idea. The pantry’s volunteers help with the event every year as well.
Rosentreter said about 90 percent of the volunteers at the luncheon will be pantry volunteers.
Today, all proceeds raised at the event are used to help the pantry in many ways, from building maintenance to buying food for the pantry’s patrons.
“A lot of the food we buy locally,” Rosentreter said. “The building is a trailer, so it is not very well insulated, so we have electric and heat bills we need to pay.”
The event has raised more than $16,000 in previous years.
