Empty Bowls

A colorful bowl

A creative bowl

A handmade bowl

An empty bowl

This bowl, made by a child's hands, sits on our kitchen counter to remind us that... 

somewhere in the world, someone's bowl is always empty.

I selected it on Saturday from a collection of equally dazzling bowls at the Empty Bowls Cereal Café in Hoboken, an event sponsored annually by All Saints Episcopal Day School.


My friend, Amina O'Kane, who is the Director of Admissions and High School Placement at the school, invited me to come. I had admired her own empty bowl months before, and wanted to learn more.

    

When I googled Empty Bowls, I was surprised to find that it's a project which spans almost every state in the U. S. and many countries around the world. As their website states, Empty Bowls is "an international grassroots effort to raise both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger." At each local event, individuals handcraft the bowls. At All Saints, they were created by students. The donors receive bowls along with a simple meal - soup and bread, or in the case of All Saints, all-you-can-eat cereal. The money raised at the cereal café benefits the Hoboken Shelter, which in 2015 served 182,000 meals, and St. Matthews lunchtime ministry which serves about 75 guests a day. 

I couldn't resist picking up a second bowl from the table. A bowl that grows food!! Recycled paper pulp, water and seeds -- ready to pop in the soil and water -- created by third graders. A small pink smile in the middle of one of the attached cards caught my attention, along with a delicate heart to the right. There were obviously two secret ingredients in the mix. Happiness and Love....from  

                                                                      

                                                                      Children 

                                                               Making a Difference!

*For instructions about how to make your own seed bowls, check out NASA's Climate Kids. The seed papers can easily be shaped into bowls.