Empty Bowls

Tuesday ~ March 12th
11am - 7pm
Hopkins Center for the Arts 1111 Mainstreet ~ Hopkins, MN
www.HopkinsSchools.org/EmptyBowls
 
You are invited to join us at our 15th annual Empty Bowls Event to choose your favorite handmade soup bowl, eat a simple meal of donated soup and bread, enjoy a variety of musical entertainment, and make a generous free will donation. Professional potters have donated beautiful bowls and related art for our silent auction.

 
What is Empty Bowls?
Since its small beginnings in 1990 at Lahser High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Empty Bowls has become an international grassroots project to raise funds for local food shelves. In 1999, Hopkins Public Schools art teachers and leaders in Hopkins Community Education saw the growing need for a fundraiser for hunger in our own community. Art students and community potters have been creating hundreds of unique soup bowls for the event ever since.
 
Over the first 14 years of Empty Bowls, our Hopkins Schools community has raised a total of $695,275 to assist our neighbors through the work of ResourceWest and ICA Food Shelf!
 
Are there hungry people in our community?

• ICA Food Shelf, located in Minnetonka and Excelsior, provided 11,945 food assists in 2012, an increase of 112% since 2008, and distributed $301,735 last year to assist families with rent, mortgage and utilities.
• ResourceWest, located on Mainstreet Hopkins, connected over 10,000 area residents to the resources they needed in 2012, including emergency financial support to over 600 families, over 1,100 Second Harvest commodity food packages, and more than 130 emergency food bags on behalf of ICA Food Shelf.

How can I help?

• Be a sponsor in the SUPERVALU Challenge! You decide your sponsorship level, send it in by March 1st, and be recognized on all print materials at the event. Sponsors of $250+ will have their logos prominently displayed.
• Make a ceramic or felt bowl in a Hopkins Community Education class in February.
• Be an in-kind sponsor of soup, bread, coffee, and other needed materials.
• Volunteer at the event.
• Artists can donate a fine art bowl or hunger related art for the silent auction.
• Musicians can donate their time and talent by entertaining at the event.
• Schools can include hunger issues in the curriculum, bowl making in art classes, promotional poster design in art and tech classes; students and staff can help serve soup or perform at the event.

www.HopkinsSchools.org/EmptyBowls 

www.Facebook/HopkinsEmptyBowls

Barb Westmoreland, Hopkins Public Schools Volunteer Coordinator 952-988-4069

Barb.Westmoreland@HopkinsSchools.org

Awards given to our community's Empty Bowls Event:
• WCCO Good Neighbor Award 2005
• Minnesota FoodShare's 2005 Most Creative Drive Award
• Minnesota Community Education's Outstanding Project Award for 2000
• National Community Improvement Projects 2000 Honorable Mention Award
• Minnesota FoodShare's 2000 Outstanding Community Contribution Award
• City of Hopkins Human Rights Award for 1999
• Minnesota FoodShare's 1999 Most Creative Drive Award
Together we can make our community a healthy place for all to live.

www.HopkinsSchools.org/EmptyBowls