Maysville’s Empty Bowls benefit event, sponsored by the Burnette Family Charitable Foundation, will begin its eighth year on Saturday Nov. 9.
Community members can choose a handmade bowl at the event, crafted by local artists, and will be treated to a meal provided by local restaurants. Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Mason County Food Bank.
“It is an international movement,” said Barb Clarke, organizer of the event, “and there are three components of it; one is to make people aware of hunger in their community, another one is to raise money for the hunger issue and the third one is to actually highlight the art.”
Clarke said 280 bowls have been made for this event, created by more than a dozen artists in the area. Food served at the benefit consists of a soup, a bread and a dessert, with water served as a beverage.
Three soups will be available for patrons, Clarke said, including butternut squash soup from M’s Eatery, chili from Delite’s and Cuban black bean soup from Sean Moral.
deSha’s will provide cornbread, while Sprinkles of Hope and Maysville Community and Technical College’s Institute for Culinary Arts will supply the dessert.
In addition to the food, live music will be played and a raffle will take place at the benefit, Clarke added.
Rebecca Cartmell, executive director of Community Care of Mason County, said the Mason County Food Bank serves upwards of 600 people each month, more than 250 families.
“We see a lot of senior citizens, we see big families that have 10 people in the family,” she said. “It runs the gamut; we have a lot of single people who come in, it really is a wide variety, but a big number every month.”
The proceeds raised from this event greatly help the food bank, Cartmell said, especially this time of year for upcoming holidays. According to Clarke, the Empty Bowls benefit raised $5,000 last year.
“It’s a huge help because it gives us the money to be able to buy any food that we need,” Cartmell said, “but particularly this time of year, we’re going to be doing our Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets and it will allow us to buy the meat — turkeys — to go into those boxes.”
The benefit is 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Cox Building on Saturday. Minimum donation for the event is $20.
