A check for $13,355 from Huntington’s 2014 Empty Bowls event was presented to Facing Hunger Foodbank Executive Director Tiffany Tatum yesterday at the Marshall University Ceramics Building at 201 21st St.
Marshall University ceramics students and representatives from B’nai Sholom Congregation and Christian Associates presented the check, which represented the proceeds from the 11th annual event April 11.
The funds raised will allow the food bank to put nearly 100,000 meals on Tri-State tables, according to Tatum.
Marshall ceramics students created about 1,300 bowls for the day, while local area potters, University of Rio Grande faculty members, the Pottery Place and the Huntington Museum of Art donated an additional 300, according to Frederick Bartolovic, Marshall’s ceramics faculty member,
Bartolovic said the Huntington event has become so popular since its inception in 2003 that he created a service learning class so his students could create a more formal relationship with the food bank while creating more bowls for the benefit.
In addition to walking away from the four-hour event with a handcrafted, ceramic bowl, for their $15 donation patrons were also offered a modest soup lunch. The serving portion and style is meant to emulate a soup kitchen and really brings home the purpose of the event, which is to help feed the hungry.
All supplies and food for the lunch, as well as goods and services that were sold as part of a silent auction, were donated by area businesses. More than 100 Marshall University students and other community members volunteered to run this year’s event.
Facing Hunger Foodbank serves more than 113,000 food-insecure individuals in 17 counties across West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.
