The bowls won’t stay empty for long.
Kudos to the folks who first came up with the idea for the Empty Bowls fundraiser in Michigan in 1994.
More cheers to the wise ones around the country who picked up the ball and ran with it, galloped, really, to states east and west and south, because hungry people are everywhere.
My dear wife Karen and I attended the edition in Syracuse on Friday, where we gladly plunked down $60, ate three bowls of tasty soup, brought home three quite beautiful handmade ceramic bowls, and slept better that night knowing we were part of a throng of hundreds of people who’d helped the Interreligious Food Consortium raise money for more than 70 food pantries and food serving sites in our home county.
The Nancy Cantor Warehouse on West Fayette Street in Syracuse’s Armory Square district.
Syracuse University hosted the Syracuse event in a downtown warehouse it refurbished for classroom and exhibit space.
The ceramics program of SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts hosted the three-hour program. Students made the bowls. As we walked along the tables appreciating their work, one was as pretty as the next.
It was hard to decide on just one, so striking was the craft work, the art, the obvious love and devotion that went into each, bowl after bowl after bowl.
So Karen picked two.
Our bowls. We took our soup in to-go bowls because we didn’t want to get the new bowls dirty for the trip home. My choice was the deep blue bowl with the bread slice inside.
Everybody got to choose from 10 or so varieties made by popular Syracuse restaurants.
I savored two to-go bowls of soups at our outdoor table in the sun, the first vegetable soup from the university’s catering service and the second Italian Wedding Soup from Grimaldi’s Luna Park. Karen chose New England Clam Chowder from Santangelo’s. That popular selection came from the bottom of the serving container and filled hardly half her bowl. The next server, from Grimaldi’s, gladly gave me an extra half-bowl of the wedding soup to make up for it.
Yum. The bread was dunk-alicious, too.
And we’ll be enjoying our trio of ceramic handmade bowls for years to come, I do believe.
If you’d like to read about my take on our visit to the lunchtime fundraiser in my weekly community blog for Syracuse Public Media site waer.org, click the link below.
http://waer.org/post/thanks-empty-bowls-more-bellies-will-be-filled-food-consortium
What has been the favorite fundraising event you’ve attended, and why? What sort of bowl would you have looked for in the tables available at Empty Bowls? What’s your favorite kind of soup?
Mark Bialczak 
I loved this post, exactly the kind of fundraiser I enjoy, art and food, too…All for a good cause! I love bright patterns and would choose something like this to put on my table for fruit, then once the fruit was gone, still colorful. I like potato bacon soup with cheese sprinkled over the top! The second favorite flavor of almost everyone who visits is Tomato Basil soup!
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There were not as many choices large enough for fruit bowls, Robin. I figured while looking that those are just harder to make, more time-consuming. Maybe, because I am not wise to the ways of forming ceramics.
I have never tried potato soup. How’s that for you? It just doesn’t sound appealing to me. Too starchy for my diabetes menu now, too, in my mind.
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Mark … The ceramic bowls are gorgeous. No wonder it was so hard to choose. The Empty Bowls program sounds like a worthwhile event to help the area’s needy. I’ll bet Karen’s New England Clam chowder from Santangelo’s was yummy. I still remember their cakes. Great restaurant. Italian wedding cake is another favorite of ours. 😉
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Yes, Judy, anthing Italian is yummy. 🙂
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This is the first time I heard of this program. It’s a wonderful thing to participate in.
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A great fundraiser that worked on all sides of the equation, Kim. So rare!
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Sooo fantastic! Y’all picked out some beautiful bowls, Mark. I love this event and would have joined you two happily. I enjoy a nice ceramic. I make a point of buying individual pieces at events so I can remember my going. Fun!
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It was a fantastic event. And you have set a memorable standard for marking your attendance, Aud. Nice!
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When I was a teenager–a punk, really–you didn’t eat out of bowls. You smoked out of them. Try working THAT into a charity fundraiser.
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Yeah, so many of us, Mark. BongAid.
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What a creative idea! I’ve never heard of this fundraiser, but it sure looks like it is a huge success or it should be. I love your three bowl choices! And I love soup! My favorites are, in this order, cheese-potato; potato; vegetable; navy bean, and five bean. Cheers to you and Karen for helping in this worthy cause! 😀
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The soups were delicious and the bowls are really nice, Rachel. Win-win for us and the people the Food Consortium helps, most importantly, of course.
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What are your favorite soups?
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Chicken noodle. Vegetable beef. Vegetarian vegetable. Wonton. Minestrone. Borscht. Escarole. Florentine. Italian Wedding. So many soups, so little time, Rachel.
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At one time, I wanted to open a gourmet soup restaurant. I love making soup more than I love the different types of soup I make. I’m told I make a helluva lobster bisque and NE clam chowder, though I don’t eat either.
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You could become the next soup nazi. Re: ‘Seinfeld,’ of course, though I am three days too late for your TV game month, Rachel.
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Yes, I DEFINITELY could! In fact, I often say that when I make soup which is pretty frequently. 🙂
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What? No soup for me? 😦
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LOL! 😀
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We’ve had the Empty Bowls cause around here for several years, probably since it started, but they’ve never created bowls like your Mark. The only kind I’ve ever seen wouldn’t really hold soup without some major seepage issues. But since it’s the though that counts, I eat the soup and love it. If I had a real bowl and a color choice, I would go for a green or an orange, my favorite colors, and my soup choice would depend on what was offered and my mood at the time. Right now I’m really cold, so I would go for chili–5 alarm chili, at that. Love Italian Wedding soup, but it wouldn’t do the trick tonight, because I’m too cold at the moment. It’s warm outside, but hard to regulate the heat inside, so that makes it a night for chili.
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Sorry to hear about the temperature regulation woes, Angie. That’s a problem. Some nice spicy chili would warm you up but good, I agree.
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Mark this is a brilliant idea, I’ve never heard of it before. I hope someone around here does something like this!!!
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Every town should have one, I think, Colleen. Fun and fund-raising all in one. Imagine that!
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You can’t have the fund without the fun!
Sorry, couldn’t resist. 🙂 And I love the creativity people put forth in fund raising.
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Perfect line there, Colleen. Crank out the social media, now!
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Oh my social media skills are limited!!!! I think I have a twitter but don’t know…. Tumblr is about falling, right? FB is so we can annoy our family/friends. I am pretty sure I am missing out on many more……. 🙂
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I think you have the definitions all covered!
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Whew. I’m smarter and more technologically advanced than I thought!
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I think this is an amazingly creative idea and a total win-win. Both of your bowls are great – I love interesting pottery pieces. Hmmmm, favorite soup? Impossible to answer, it’s so dependent on mood and weather and….
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Yes, soup choices are supposed to change with the wind, Barbara. Good answer, my friend. Today’s chicken noodle is tomorrow’s beef vegetable. Has anybody seen my winter borscht?
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i love this concept mark. our 3rd grade embraces this fundraiser and makes bowls each year in art class, hosting an empty bowls soup night to raise money for those who have no soup. i think it is brilliant idea to help those less fortunate.. also think it was clever of the two of you to take your soups to go, in order to better preserve your ‘art work.’ bravo –
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In my research, I noticed that Empty Bowls was started in Michigan way back in 1994. What a great idea, Beth. Bravo to your state. I love that your 3rd Grade class works for the cause. If I were there, I’d go to their night to support the cause and get another cool bowl. And, yes, we thought we wanted to keep the art bowls clean because we had to carry them back to the car, which we had to park blocks away …
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i know you would mark, and i think it teaches so many good life lessons, to everyone involved, whether creating or buying –
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Mark, what a brilliant idea for a fundraiser and you have your beautiful bowls forever to remind you of your donation!
Diana xo
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I think your new company can make a go of this somehow out there in Calgary, Diana, for some non-profit’s prestige and glory.
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Beautiful bowls! We have an Empty Bowl event here as well. Mr. B has attended before, I will have to accompany him next time. Glad you got three of them. 🙂
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You must go with him, Mrs. B. I mean, there’s food involved! 🙂 You are going to stare me down in Cape Cod, aren’t you? 🙂
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You chose some lovely bowls. I would have chosen Albondiga (meatball soup) if it was a choice.
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I came closest with my choice of Italian Wedding Soup, Dora. It’s meatballs florentine with chicken stock, if you are unfamiliar. But I bet you know. I did not see Albondiga. I will keep my eye out for it on menus here from now on. Thanks for the heads-up about a new soup for me, my friend.
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Soup is good food. Every time you look in your cupboard and see those bowls, you will remember the good work being done to feed the hungry. We are so fortunate to not know what it feels like to go hungry. And this is one of those times when your dishes don’t need to match! Just think if Olive Garden bought those bowls for all of their Never-Ending Pasta Bowls…
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Yes, that purchase would do wonders for the food pantries of the country, Kerbey. Great idea there, my friend.
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What an astounding fund raising campaign Mark. That is a wonderful idea – using soup bowls to rais money for soup kitchens. And so many people donating their time and efforts to make it work. That is an awesome idea and well done. I’m gushing because it is so simple and yet so elegant and I’ve never seen it before. So Cool.
I would choose clam chowder or bisque if there was any available.
Excellent post and article Mark – and I too would have chosen a solid colored beefy bowl , yours is perfect.
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I would think there are these needs and events in your part of Canada, Paul. Click on that site and take a look. If not, start spreading the word about such an event. You could do it with your wisdom and perseverance, my friend.
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Great idea and hurrah to you and dear wife Karen for participating 🙂 You chose well with the bowls and soup. And “dunkalicious” is my new favorite word.
I will always go for the colorful bowl. And any soup is a good soup, though the more veggies the better.
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My vegetable soup was chock full, Liz, always a healthy attribute. I felt stout choosing a variety offered by campus catering in a hall full of kettles filled by popular restaurants, too, I must confess.
Please do co-opt dunkalicious over at your place. I foresee a comfortable new home for the word. 🙂
My blue bowl is my new favorite, thank you.
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Oh, that does sound like a great fundraiser!
I would have looked for a bold red or blue bowl. Simple but powerful in hue.
Favorite soup: Right now it would be Chicken and Wild Rice 🙂
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Interesting now that you mention it, Jeanette. Perhaps because everybody knew the event was set for the end of September, most of the bowls were more subtle hues. I don’t recall a single vivid red. I did pick a blue bowl, but I would call it just short of bold or bright.
Chicken and Wild Rice. Yum.
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What a wonderful idea! Your community is always busy doing fun and thoughtful stuff!
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It takes a village, Ali. We have to be this way because there are many hurdles in our world, no?
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Absolutely!
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What a great idea. Love the ceramic bowls. The students are a talented bunch. It’s the sort of fundraiser anyone can go to and enjoy.
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Everybody was there, Rachel, a real cross-section of the community. It was vibrant.
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What a lovely idea for a fundraiser! No one in this country should go to bed hungry! I am just thinking of all the yummy soups as winter quickly approaches. Nothing beats chicken noodle, but also a BIG lobster bisque fan!!
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I eat chicken noodle soup at least once a week, UpMom. It’s comfort food for me, any season. I love lobster, but lobster bisque never captured me for some reason. Too much like clam chowder, maybe, which I DO NOT LIKE. Ha! Enjoy your soup. Click on the Empty Bowl link. Maybe they have an event near you. It is so worthy to help feed the hungry.
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