Empty Bowls, Baskets Dinner Set

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will hold the fourth Empty Bowls and Baskets Dinner of homemade soup and bread to raise awareness of the fight against hunger and to raise money for The Friendship Table.

Sponsored by the Women’s History Month Celebration committee, the dinner will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., Thursday, March 19, in the Mukaiyama University Room. Tickets are $10 and will be sold at the door. Diners are invited to select a handcrafted ceramic bowl or a basket as a reminder that someone else’s bowl might be empty.

According to Dr. Holly J. Spittler, associate dean of student affairs and chairwoman of the event, “The premise behind the dinner is to offer a simple meal of homemade soups and breads and a place at the table for all as a way to increase our awareness of the fight against hunger.”

In the spirit of community Pitt-Bradford students and volunteers spent an evening together weaving baskets for the event. Third-grade students from School Street Elementary, St. Bernard School, as well as third- and fourth-graders from The Learning Center and the Bradford Area Christian Academy, decorated placemats as part of a lesson about hunger. Numerous campus and community volunteers have volunteered to make soups, breads, and cookies for the dinner.

The Empty Bowls Dinner was initiated in 1990 when a Michigan high school art teacher and his students sponsored the first dinner served in handmade bowls to benefit the cause. By the following year, the originators had developed the concept into Empty Bowls, a project to provide support for food banks, soup kitchens and other organizations that fight hunger. Since then, Empty Bowls events have been held throughout the world, and millions of dollars have been raised to combat hunger. For more information on the originators of the event, go to: www.emptybowls.net.

This year’s Empty Bowls and Baskets Dinner received support from the American Association of University Women, Anna Ezzolo, The Friendship Table, Derilyn Heller, Hog-Shed Pottery Studio, Elliott Hutten, Pitt-Bradford Staff Association, Metz and Associates, Miss Maggies, Betsy Matz, Parkview Supermarket, Pitt-Bradford’s Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity, Literary Club, Center for Leadership and Service, Division of Communication and the Arts, Empty Bowls and Baskets Steering Committee, Student Affairs, TRiO Student Support Services Program, Denise Tarasovitch, Tops Friendly Markets, Wal-Mart, WESB-1490 AM and the Women’s History Celebration Committee.

Pictured, Courtney Shroyer, a nursing major from Berlin, Pa., weaves a basket for the Empty Bowls and Baskets Dinner.
(Photo courtesy of Pitt-Bradford)