CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale ceramics students and faculty invite the community to purchase a handmade bowl and enjoy some soup Saturday, Oct. 17.
The annual Empty Bowls fundraiser runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. — or until the bowls sell out — at the Neighborhood Co-op Grocery, 1815 W. Main St. in Carbondale. About 150 bowls will be available, priced from $15 to $25, and each purchase includes soup while it lasts.
Every bowl sold puts money back into the community to fight food insecurity. The ceramics program is glad to work with the Co-op again this year to “raise money to help those with less,” said Pattie Chalmers, professor and head of the ceramics program in the School of Art and Design.
For the students who made the bowls, the event offers a chance to make an impact close to home. It’s pleasing for them to “have the chance to be present to see the joy with which people select a bowl they have made,” Chalmers said.
Chalmers started Empty Bowls, part of an international initiative, at SIU Carbondale in 2014.
For more information, contact Haley Stanaford, graduate assistant in the ceramics program, at haley.stanaford@siu.edu.