Mar 29, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – For three years now, Waynesburg University Bonner Scholars have been helping fight hunger, especially with young children in the county’s five school districts.

Empty Bowls Greene County is the project the students choose each year to serve and beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday, volunteers will be serving up a delicious lunch of homemade soups and artisan breads at the National Guard Readiness Center at the EverGreene Technology Park in Franklin Township.

In keeping with the Empty Bowls tradition that started as a class project in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., in 1990 and has now spread worldwide, there will be tables of ceramic bowls for eventgoers to choose from, made and donated by Waynesburg students and local potters.

All donations go to the Weekend Food Program that serves approximately 140 kids in the county whose families are going through hard economic times, Community Foundation director Bettie Stammerjohn said.

Packets of shelf stable, kid friendly food are given for the weekend to students identified as having a nutritional need, Stammerjohn explained. The program started in two school districts in 2012 and by 2014 was offered in all the districts.

“The anecdotal stories I’ve heard is that teachers notice the difference on Monday morning with the level of energy they see and less behavioral problems,” Stammerjohn said.

This year’s Empty Bowls project is lead by sophomore nursing student Sydney Green and a group of fellow Bonner volunteers. Local potters were contacted to donate their wares and university students helped create and glaze bowls in Waynesburg University art instructor Andy Heisey’s ceramics studio.

Local artists and businesses have been generous with their donations of time and products.

PA Mug Co. gave the community a chance to be hands on and help paint the bowls that owner Jennifer Adamson and fellow potters Keith Koury and Jessica Brobst and university intern Daniel Davis made for the cause.

“We’ve been involved with Empty Bowls since the beginning and will be donating bowls again this year,” Artbeat Gallery owner Linda Winegar said while holding up a finely glazed soup tureen, complete with lid and ladle that will be up for auction Sunday.

“I donated last year but this year I’m coming to the luncheon, too. This is a good project for a very good cause,” clay artist Laura Schlieshinger of Carmichaels said. One of her painted bowls will be part of the auction, along with works from other potters and goods and services donated from businesses in the county.

A variety of soups made by Dan Wagner’s student chefs at Greene County Career and Technology Center will be served.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door and include the bowl to take home. Doors open at 11 a.m. and lunch is served starting at noon. Children 12 and under eat for free but don’t receive a bowl.

For more information or to purchase tickets on campus, contact Green at gre0883@student.waynesburg.edu. Tickets are also still available in Waynesburg at the Community Foundation of Greene County at 108 E. High St. and Artbeat Gallery at 52 E. High St.

Auction items can be seen online on Facebook at Waynesburg University’s Empty Bowls page.

For those who can’t make it to Empty Bowls but want to make a tax-deductible donation, visit www.cfgcpa.org and click on donate now and choose Weekend Food Program to support.