By ANN RICHARDS
A rainbow of colored pottery — 1,300 bowls to be exact — was thrown, glazed and fired in the kilns at the Flint Institute of Arts (FIA) this past summer. And each piece of art helped to raise more than $30,000 — the equivalent of 180,000 meals — to fight hunger in 22 Michigan counties at this year’s “Empty Bowls” event at the
Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.
Now in its 20th year, the venerable Flint fundraiser keeps on growing, thanks to the efforts of hundreds of community residents, businesses and nonprofit organizations, says food bank President Bill Kerr.
“This year’s event was particularly important, because it gave us a chance to introduce our friends and donors to a new project we hope will double our current work and storage space,” Kerr said of the food bank’s recent purchase of a 62,000-square-foot warehouse, which will be developed into a community distribution center adjacent to its main facility.
An estimated 1,200 people attended this year’s Empty Bowls in late September, paying $15 each to purchase a bowl and enjoy a sampling of soups from 39 area restaurants. Corporate sponsorships — which are increasing each year — also contributed to the total dollars raised. Both the food bank and the FIA are long—time Mott grantees.
“The soup alone is worth the entrance fee,” said Guy Adamec, master potter,
FIA instructor and community artist who has been the driver behind Flint’s Empty Bowls since 1992.
“The community really pitches in,” he continued. “Everything is donated — the flowers, the entertainment — when so many people do their small bit, it brings a lot of awareness to the problem of hunger.”
Flint’s first event — featuring 500 bowls made by local high school and art school students — was coordinated by the Greater Flint Arts Council. While the downtown fundraiser enjoyed modest success, the decision to host the event at the food bank and “take the bowls to the people” boosted participation, said Adamec.
“The food bank had the logistics and the contacts to make Empty Bowls grow. In the past three years, it’s really taken off.”
Flint was the second community in the nation to host an Empty Bowls fundraiser, thanks to its proximity to Michigan art teacher John Hartom, who with his wife Lisa, hosted the first Empty Bowls event at Bloomfield Hills’ Lahser High School in 1990. Hartom created the event to boost students’ awareness of hunger locally and take action to prevent it.
“I was at the school repairing John’s kiln and I saw the bowls the students were making,” said Adamec. “I thought — we could do this in Flint.”
Since that first Empty Bowls event, the idea has taken hold across the country. In 1991, the Hartoms founded a nonprofit of the same name, dedicated to helping communities start their own fundraisers. To date, tens of millions of dollars have been raised to benefit local food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
According to a recent study by Brandeis University, since 2007, there has been a 30 percent increase in the number of Americans who can’t afford adequate supplies of food. The rise in hunger has a strong negative impact on the economy, as measured in lost productivity, poor education, and higher health care costs.
Need has increased significantly in the 22 counties served by the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, says Development Manager Tracy Fowler Johnson. In 2010, the agency distributed more than 19.2 million pounds of food through a network of 400 partner agencies, a six percent increase from the previous year.
“Empty Bowls has become our signature event,” she said. “Not only does it raise money, it creates community consciousness. It gives us the opportunity to show how expansive our reach is in helping the less fortunate.”