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Pottery with a Purpose: Serve Soup and Fund Community Needs

by Amy "frankie" Felegy

A light-skinned hand with a floral tattoo reaching for a bowl amid a table of other bowls.
Photo Credit: Alana Horton / Arts Midwest
Bowls are made from local professional potters as well as neighbors who wanted to create something for a good cause. This particular chapter hosts painting parties for artists, too.

Empty Bowls started in Michigan in the ‘90s and has expanded across the region to fill neighbors up with tasty soup, financial support, and artful community.

In this church basement in south Minneapolis, local food security and art become collaborators. 

For 15 years, Kingfield Empty Bowls has joined grassroots organizers across the Midwest and world, fundraising for neighbors in need. Empty Bowls founders John Hartom and Lisa Blackburn organized the first event in Michigan in the 1990s for art students to create change in their community.

Bowls sitting on a table next to a sign reading: A HUGE thank you to the ceramic studios, followed by a list of several organizations written in different colors.
Photo Credit: Alana Horton / Arts Midwest
Several local ceramic studios fire many of the bowls to be sold later at the event.

Ashley Annett is the community coordinator with the Kingfield Neighborhood Association, which puts on the event each year. She sets the scene during ‘Soup-er Bowl Sunday’ this winter: 

“You come in, you’re greeted by a volunteer or two, you go downstairs, you pick out your artist-made bowl,” Annett says.  

Those bowls are all made and donated by local potters or locals who want to try their hand at it. The neighborhood organization even hosts painting parties for folks to glaze them before sending off the bowls—which numbered nearly 800 this year—to get fired at local studios.

At their fundraising event, folks can donate (the suggested amount ranges from $25 to $40) to local organizations before filling up their bowls. Annett says around $18,000 was funneled right back to the community, through these donations and non-bowl ceramic raffle tickets.  

“You’re nourishing people, you’re bringing people together, and you’re raising money that’s going right back directly into the hands of people in your community.”

ASHLEY ANNETT, KINGFIELD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
A room of people looking at bowls set up on white tables in a square.
Photo Credit: Alana Horton / Arts Midwest
“There’s a bunch of people in there perusing bowls. We have volunteers setting out new ones so that there’s fresh stuff to look at every time,” Annett says.
A man wearing a baseball cap and blue gloves serving up soup into a small bowl behind a counter separating him from another person/
Photo Credit: Alana Horton / Arts Midwest
“It’s such a directly impactful event that everyone just feels good doing. Everyone feels good donating. Everyone feels good attending. The soup is always absolutely delicious. The ceramics are beautiful,” Annett says.
Two pep=ople with light skin wearing blue gloves stir large pans and pots of soup.
Photo Credit: Alana Horton / Arts Midwest
Volunteers heat up soup during the 15th annual Kingfield Empty Bowls event.
A man with light skin holds a bowl and is surrounded by several bowls.
Photo Credit: emptybowls.com
Empty Bowls was founded in Michigan in the early 1990s by art teacher John Hartom (pictured) and artist Lisa Blackburn. Hartom ran that very first event so his students could use art to make a difference, allowing participants to keep the bowls as a reminder of community food needs.

Local benefactors include Twin Cities Food Justice, a local Meals on Wheels chapter, and a Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative home for youth out of the foster care system. Partner organizations set up at tables throughout for people to learn more information. 

“It’s just a very good communication forum and togetherness sort of building day,” Annett says. “It’s just like cozy and heartwarming, truly. It’s just a wholesome event that is for literally everyone, our community and beyond.” 

Over a dozen local restaurants donate their soup and bread to hundreds of attendees; volunteers serve it up. Live accordion music plays; some people create handmade valentines to be delivered with the Meals on Wheels program. People connect—through delicious food, mutual aid, and responding to the real need for food security and stable housing. All in the same room. 

“Now, more than ever, people want to be in their community,” Annett says. “Looking at each other’s faces, supporting each other, being together, and helping one another.”