Empty Bowls and filled souls

Jonathan Forsgren
·2 min read

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) – Do you know someone who is struggling for their next meal? It’s a common problem locally and nationwide. A special charity event was held in Beckley today to help stomp out hunger.

The Quota Club of Beckley has been hosting “Empty Bowls” for more than a decade. The Empty Bowls program is a grassroots movement hosted in cities and towns across the world to raise money to feed the hungry in local communities. This year the theme is “Be My Neighbor.”

The public was invited to “Journey at the Place” in Beckley, where, with a $20 dollar donation, participants received soups of all types, desserts, drinks, and a handmade pottery bowl. A silent auction was also held at the event. All the materials needed for the event were donated and 100% of the money raised went to local pantries.

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Beth Jarrell, Chair for the Empty Bowl Event, said they’ve raised over $170,000 over the last decade and she has an ambitious target for this year. “I’m really hoping that today pushes over the $200,000 mark.”

Leslie Gray Baker, Director of Parks and Recreation at the Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia, which supplies the bowls for the event shared the significance of the dishware: “Well, it started ten years ago. It’s a grassroots effort that’s all over the country. And the original concept was the empty bowl. It’s to help you realize that most of the people in the world have one bowl of rice to eat a day. And that’s all. And populous countries like China, Indonesia, India. And when their bowl is when they eat in their rice, it’s empty and that’s all they get. So you’re supposed to take the bowl, take it and put it someplace in your house and prominent so that you’ll see it every day, maybe on the kitchen shelf. And then it will help us be more grateful and understand that we have in this land of plenty more than most people in the world. But there are people in our community who don’t have the food.”

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