TABLE held Empty Bowls event to kick off fall fundraising

Soup, music and pottery all came together to raise awareness for childhood hunger at TABLE’s third annual Empty Bowls event.

TABLE, a local nonprofit organization that provides food to children in schools around Chapel Hill and Carrboro, hosted the event Sunday as a fundraiser and a kick-off for their fall fundraising campaign.

“Our Empty Bowls event is designed to help raise awareness about childhood hunger in Chapel Hill and Carrboro as well as raise funds for our programs,” said Ashton Chatham Tippins, executive director of TABLE.

The event planners hope to get community members to become monthly donors, known as TABLE setters, to help with the weekend backpack program.

For $30, attendees received a piece of pottery from local artists, a bowl of soup and listened to live music.

All of the proceeds went directly to helping TABLE provide healthy food to 500 students on a weekly basis. In Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 2,600 pre-school, elementary and middle school students are food insecure, according to TABLE.

Empty Bowls is a national grassroots campaign to help end hunger.

Tippins said a board member heard about the event on vacation and thought it would fit the local chapter as a fundraiser. All of the pottery and food were donated, and musicians volunteered their time to play at the event.

“Two committee members spent time reaching out to local potters, middle schools, high schools and other people that are involved and engaged with pottery so that they might donate,” Tippins said.

High school volunteers Arielle Martinez and Molly Horan said they came to help because a friend invited them, but ultimately they enjoyed helping out a good cause.

“I thought (volunteering) would be a good use of time to help people instead of just sit at home,” Martinez said.

DeWana Anderson and Amy Sheffield from The Animal Hospital in Carrboro, which is close to TABLE, sponsored the event. They said they would pass by TABLE often and notice the work they were doing. They said they felt inspired to help the organization.

“If you can get high school kids and college kids excited about helping, then it’s good for the community,” Anderson said.

At the event, Joy MacVane, founder of TABLE, was honored with a quilted picture of the TABLE house on Weaver Street, as she and her husband are moving to New Hampshire. She said she had often been asked how the organization grew from helping 12 students to 500 in less than 10 years.

To that, MacVane said, “(We’re) accessing the love in your hearts to feed children.”

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