From thebor at cagreens.org Sat Nov 3 16:22:34 2007 From: thebor at cagreens.org (Michael Borenstein) Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:22:34 -0800 Subject: [GP-Eldorado-n] EMPTY BOWLS Message-ID: <472D02BA.46386A1B@cagreens.org> El Dorado Peace and Justice Community Contact: Diana Stauffer 530 642 1120 October 5, 2007 As we?re about to enter the holiday season, a time for gathering with families and friends to share good food and afternoon football, we might consider the plight of those folks less fortunate than ourselves. The facts are staggering: every four seconds someone in the world dies of hunger; according to the World Bank; well over 500 million people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are living in ?absolute poverty;? every year, 15 million people die of hunger.And the effects of hunger aren?t limited to the Third World; one out of every eight children in America go to bed hungry. Seventeen years ago a high school art teacher in Michigan ? looking for a way to help his students raise money to support a food drive ? came up with an idea.He devised a class project where his students made ceramic bowls for a fund raising meal.Guests were served bread and soup ?in the student-made bowls - and were invited to keep their bowl as a reminder of hunger in the world. On Saturday, November 10th, El DoradoCounty residents will have a chance to enjoy a dinner of soup and bread and help ease hunger abroad and here at home.Sponsored by El Dorado Peace and Justice Community, the 6th Annual Empty Bowls event will take place at the Placerville Shakespeare Club, at 2940 Bedford Avenue, from 4:30 to 8pm. Oxfam International, a confederation of 13 organizations working together with over 3,000 partners in more that 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice will be one beneficiary of this year?s event.Oxfam International is one of three worldwide agencies supported by Empty Bowls proceeds on a rotating basis.All three organizations ? Oxfam, the Heifer Project and Mercy Corps ? have proven track records and spend 95% of their contributions on actual aid.Locally, the event will benefit the Upper Room Dining Room on Broadway, which serves over 120 people daily. Carla Turoff, El Dorado Peace and Justice Community board member and organizer says: ?Empty Bowls is a small gesture that keeps us all connected to an understanding of how things really are for a large number of our fellow humans. It is also a way of remaining connected to one another here, in our local activist community. Hopefully, it helps to keep us dedicated, in the long term, to finding a real solution to the problems of poverty, injustice, and hunger in our world.It has three objectives: To raise funds to feed hungry people, to raise awareness about the issues of hunger and inequality in our local and global communities and to remind people that through artistic creativity we can help to create positive social change.? Each year, the Peace and Justice Community, a nonprofit 501-c3 organization, strives to raise more funds than the previous year. This year the goal is to make more than the $10,000 that was raised in 2006. Those folks unable to attend the event can send a contribution to the El Dorado Peace and Justice Community, PO Box 543, Diamond Springs, CA95619. For more information on the event, please visit www.edpjc.org. ----- Placerville Shakespeare Club 2940 Bedford Avenue in Placerville 4:30-8pm on Saturday, November 10th. Donations of $15-$50 keep the handmade bowl. Children under 10 Free. (Those admitted free receive a meal, but no keepsake bowl) No one is turned away for lack of funds.