Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
The Pocahontas County Family Resource Network held its first annual Empty Bowls fundraiser in 2016 at the Pocahontas County Opera House. Now, nine years later, the tradition will continue Thursday, October 23, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The concept of Empty Bowls began in the 1990s in Michigan when John Hartom and Lisa Blackburn used their artistic skills to fundraiser for their local food pantry. The concept was simple, yet effective. They would make one-of-a-kind bowls which would come with a ticket for the event.
Participants would buy a ticket to enjoy a variety of soups and get to take a handmade bowl home.
With the number of talented artists in Pocahontas County, it was a no brainer for the FRN to start the tradition to raise funds for the Harvest House Food Pantry in Marlinton.
The FRN is once again working with Pocahontas County Arts Council’s Cynthia Gurerri and Pocahontas County High School art teacher Alison Safrit to source the bowls, made by students and local artists.
“Cynthia does a great job,” FRN executive director Stacy Vandevander said. “I know she’s been to the school, and they’ve made some ceramics. The art council has been a great partner in this. We buy the clay and the materials needed and then they will do all the crafting.”
In addition to the beautiful bowls, participants will get to sample more than 20 different soups – all provided by volunteers.
“We have a lineup of about twenty and that’s everything from chicken noodle soup to soups I’ve never heard of that have twenty different beans in them,” Vandevander said. “Some people make chili. We have a taco soup and cabbage soup; roasted red pepper soup. That is one of my favorites.”
The goal each year is to sell 200 tickets and is the goal again this year. Tickets are available at the FRN office at 614 Second Avenue in Marlinton or online. The QR code and link is available on the Pocahontas County FRN Facebook page.
“If people do purchase tickets online, they don’t have to come to our office and get them,” Vandevander said. “We will have them at the opera house the evening of the event with their names on them.”
The evening will include music provided by Richard Hefner and Joanna Burt-Kinderman as well as a new take on the silent auction. Instead of bidding on items, there will be a Chinese auction. Each item will have a bucket with it and participants will place tickets in the bucket for the item they want to win.
Tickets will be $1, and you can place as many tickets as you want in the bucket of your choosing. Then the ticket drawn from each bucket will indicate the winner.
There are also tickets for a Yeti cooler and Yeti blanket, which were donated by Glades Building Supply. The tickets for that pair are $10 each or two for $15. Those tickets are also available at the FRN office or the night of the event.
Vandevander said the FRN is looking at different ways to raise funds to add something new and unique to the annual dinner.
“We’re tweaking and changing things,” she said. “Keeping the core of the program – the soup and the entertainment – and then just trying to tweak everything else to bring in as much money as we can.”
The fundraiser is always important for the food pantry, but more so this year due to changes in funding.
The guidelines for food pantry funding have changed to be more strict, which in turn, has made it more difficult to stretch funding for the FRN.
“Essentially, how that affects our food pantry is the new guidelines only allow you to access the pantry four timer per year now,” Vandevander explained. “So, it is no longer a monthly food pantry with that funding.
“We do have other streams of funding, so hopefully we can keep those streams coming in,” she continued. “I’m constantly applying for new grants to supplement so it can operate as normal. It shouldn’t affect people yet.”
The other issue is the source of the food. Mountaineer Food Bank is the primary source of food for the Marlinton food pantry, but it also has experienced budget cuts, which makes it difficult to provide the same amount of food it has in the past.
Vandevander explained that in the past she could purchase a pallet of food from Mountain Food Bank for $10, but now, with a diminished supply, she will have to look for other places to purchase food, and it will be at cost.
“We’re losing a bit of funding and it’s costing us more to bring food in,” she said. “So that’s why it’s really important this fundraiser does well, more so than in the past. It’s always done great, but this year, we’re really hoping to hit it out of the park.”
The Empty Bowls event covers approximately 10 percent of the food pantry costs, which doesn’t sound like much, but it can be three months’ worth of food for families who need it.
“It’s a pretty low number in the grand scheme of things, but that could be three months of putting food on someone’s table, so when you look at it in that sense, it’s a huge deal,” Vandevander said. “We’re hoping that it can be around twenty percent eventually.”
Tickets for Empty Bowls are $25 if bought ahead of time and are $30 the day of and at the door.
