For a third year, students in Pittsfield and Belmont are holding “Empty Bowls” events to raise money for their local food pantries.
On Tuesday evening, community members gathered at the Pittsfield Middle High School cafeteria to buy some of the 175 colorful, handmade ceramic bowls created for the event and to enjoy a soup dinner and dessert made by family and consumer sciences students. The bowls, made by students and other community members, sold for $10 each and included one meal. For $20, two bowls and a family meal could be purchased.
The event raises about $1,200 annually for the Pittsfield Food Pantry, and students will deliver a check later this year.
“There’s a need for feeding people,” Pittsfield art teacher Bill Mitchell said.
“The people that run the food pantry come in and talk to students about the importance of this event,” he said. “They came in last year and they said the money that we’ve raised was enough to buy food for the food pantry for the whole summer.”
Raffles for gift certificates and three ceramic pieces by Maureen Mills also raised money. Mills, head of ceramics at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, spent a day with Pittsfield students making bowls this spring.
Extra bowls will be sold in a silent auction during the school’s Exhibition Night on June 7 from 6-6:45 p.m.
At Belmont Elementary School, about 80 fourth-graders have been molding and glazing ceramic creations in preparation for their event. Next week, parents will be able to “purchase” their child’s bowl, a first venture into ceramics for most of the students, for a suggested donation and stay for a meal with their families.
In previous years, students raised about $500 for the food pantry at St. Joseph’s Parish in Belmont, and this year the class is aiming for $600, art teacher Katie Cotnoir said.
She organizes the event at Belmont – and a similar event at Canterbury Elementary School – to show her students they can work to fix problems around them like hunger.
“Right within their community, they can make a very big difference. And it can be something small or it can be something much larger but there’s many different ways they can do it,” Cotnoir said, adding that the event also brings awareness to the arts. “The arts have to be able to not only be therapeutic and express our feelings, but to be able to connect people and bring people together.”
Ingredients for the Pittsfield event were donated by Hannaford Supermarket of Northwood and Rustic Crust of Pittsfield. Food at the Belmont event will be provided by El Jimador Mexican Restaurant, J&J’s Yolk & Co. in Belmont, 99 Restaurants in Tilton, and Panera Bread in Concord.
(Elizabeth Frantz can be reached at efrantz@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@lizfrantz.)