[GP-Eldorado-n] Empty Bowls 2005 fundrasier event Nov. 12

[Diana Stauffer]

October 20. 2005

Press Release: Placerville, CA

El Dorado Peace and Justice Community

Rich Waters 530 622 6900

Diana Stauffer 530 642 1120

Carla Turoff 530 622 9459

 

5th Annual Empty Bowls Supper Fundraiser-Saturday, November 12, 5-8pm Mother Lode Lion's Club, 4701 Missouri Flat Road, Placerville

 

Living in El Dorado County, not many of us experience real hunger.  Like the hunger of the evacuees escaping the wrath of Hurricane Katrina; like the hunger of  villagers made homeless by the recent earthquake in Kashmir; like the hunger of war and drought victims in Africa, like the hunger of the poor.  Not many of us have personal knowledge of the kind of hunger suffered by the estimated eight hundred fifty million people throughout the world described by the United Nations as "chronically hungry."

But hunger does exist in El Dorado County.  According to Elly Kozlowski of the Upper Room Dining Room on Broadway, an average 100 people a day visit the dining room for an evening meal.  And, since moving to its present Broadway location three and a half years ago, the Upper Room - a  church and community-sponsored organization originally housed in Placerville's St. Patrick's Church - has served 100,000 people seeking a nutritious meal, a friendly face, a bit of warmth.

Serving the county's low-income population, The Upper Room Dining Room will benefit from this year's "Empty Bowls" event, sponsored by the El Dorado Peace and Justice Community - a non-profit 501c3 organization - to take place November 12, at Mother Lode Lions Club at the intersection of Missouri Flat and Pleasant Valley Roads.  

Half the proceeds from the event will go to the Upper Room; the other half will benefit Heifer International, a humanitarian organization based in Arkansas, which - through livestock donations and education - has provided assistance to seven million families in 125 countries since its founding in 1944.  Beneficiaries of previous local Empty Bowls events include SHARE, the Upper Room and the international group Mercy Corps.

The idea for Empty Bowls occurred to two Michigan ceramics instructors, John Hartum and Lisa Blackburn, in early 1991, when a local food drive failed to meet its goal.  Hartum had his students throw 120 bowls to use at a high school staff fundraising dinner.  Dinner participants were allowed to keep the bowls they used during the dinner as reminders of the hunger existing in the world.  From such humble beginnings, the Empty Bowls Project developed.  Today, the project's work is carried out across the United States and beyond, with the help of such organizations as Oxfam America and the Unitarian Universalist Church.

For a suggested donation of $15 - $50, "Empty Bowls" participants share a meal of homemade soup, bread and butter and a beverage.  The donation also entitles the participants to keep their "souvenir" ceramic bowls, fashioned by local potters and school students.

Coloma Celtic, a local band performing Irish and American folk music will provide entertainment.  

Children under 10 will be admitted free, but will not receive a "souvenir" bowl; and nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.

Empty Bowls will begin at 5 and serve until 8 p.m. 

 


 



 

 
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