Carson City heard the calling Saturday and they came by the hundreds for delicious homemade soup served up in locally-made pottery bowls as part of the annual Empty Bowls project, a fundraiser for Friends in Helping Service (FISH) with the support of Ogres-Holm Pottery inside the Carson Mall.
Many local restaurants participated in the event, bringing with them delicious homemade soups prepared with fresh ingredients and of course served with love. Organizers said in total, around 110 gallons of soup was prepared for the event by 20 local restaurants. Delicious soup was then ladled into serving cups to enjoy.
Participants bought the hand-created pottery made by local children, their families and school groups over the past few months at Ogres-Holm Pottery inside the Carson Mall.
Empty Bowls, which began in 2012, is one of many FISH fundraisers. What makes Empty Bowls unique is the involvement of the restaurant community partners, Carson Mall, Ogres-Holm Pottery, the volunteers who help make it work and the community at-large who come out to enjoy not only works of art created by locals, but delicious soups made with love and care of those less fortunate.
“It’s an opportunity for people who learn how to do pottery and get involved in their artistic abilities, whether they’re novices or experienced. They do it all year long to prepare. And then we have the event that brings everybody together in the community who they probably haven’t seen each other since the last time there was a Nevada Day parade,” said Peckham. “It’s building the community and it reminds people when they take these bowls home that there are empty bowls in the community. In other words, there’s hungry people.”
There were approximately 20 restaurants competing for prizes “so you know, the chefs brought their best,” he said.
Peckham says a little less than half of FISH’s $2.5 million budget goes to food for those in need. So making people aware of that and that it takes a community, hopefully, they might support us in the future, or at least be cognizant that “even though we’re a great, great region, there’s still a lot of people that are living paycheck to paycheck and sometimes not quite making it even with that.”
Stirring the Pot
The basis of the event is empty bowls and that’s where the pottery comes in. At Ogres-Holm Pottery inside the Carson Mall, they have a designated day, every other Thursday, as the day to help make and produce Empty Bowls to feed the community, explained Lucas Lamont of Ogres-Holm Pottery. This year, he estimates between 700 to 800 bowls were made for the event.
“Every bowl from ticket sales feeds 10 community members that are without food. All of our money and proceeds that we get from this event goes directly to FISH’s Food Closet,” Lamont said. “The idea is to get the community interested and bring them as part of it, so we’re not just asking for money. We’re like, ‘come in, have a good time. Be a part to what’s going on in Carson City.’ And that’s why we’re here.”
Because events stack up during the holiday season, a decision was made to move the event to October to prompt a better turnout. Lamont estimates that around 500 people made it to Saturday’s event.
Dayton 4-Hers among the pottery artists
Among the bowl makers was a team from Dayton 4-H. According to arts and crafts leader Allie Baker and parent Kirstin Clifford, The Dayton 4H Club was looking to do a project when they learned about Empty Bowls.
“As part of the arts and crafts project, Miss Jo informed us of Empty Bowls and thought that it would be a good project for us and so we did it with seven (students) and here we are. I think we’ll probably be here every year now,” said Baker.
