Empty Bowls back to help SAM25 programs

The bowls are back, and they’re better than ever as Shawano Area Matthew 25 gears up for its biggest fundraiser of the year.

SAM25 will be holding its Empty Bowls fundraiser Sept. 10 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at SAM’s House, 105 E. Richmond St., Shawano. There are hundreds of ceramic bowls available to the public that community members have been painting over the last couple of years, according to Jody Hammond, executive director.

The fundraiser has previously brought about $45,000 annually to the organization, which provides a homeless shelter in the winter months, a community clinic year-round, a thrift store and a resource center for those who might be down on their luck. This year, Hammond is hoping to raise even more. Even though the money is key to running SAM25’s programs, Hammond wants to use the opportunity to show the work that’s being done to help the less fortunate in the Shawano area.

“Our effort this year is to get people back in the door,” she said. “So many people volunteer and they donate, but they’ve never seen the inside.”

Empty Bowls is a national campaign that started in 1990 by a Michigan art teacher to highlight the issues of hunger and homelessness that places all over experience. SAM25 first took part in the Empty Bowls campaign in 2017, starting out at Hillcrest Primary School before moving to Shawano Community High School in 2019 because of the number of people attending the fundraiser. About 1,200 bowls have been painted by community members since the campaign first began, according to Hammond.

“I did work the fundraiser previously when they had them at the schools,” said Hammond, who took the reins of SAM25 earlier this year.

Community members can buy the bowls — and some soup to go with them — as a means of showing support for those in need. The soup and the bowls had to be put on hold due to the pandemic because there is usually a luncheon that accompanies the fundraiser.

Hammond said the soup would be to-go this year, adding that the facility still requires visitors to wear masks. A single bowl costs $7, and participants can purchase two bowls with a quart of soup for $18 or just $8 for the soup alone. The soup choices include chicken noodle and chicken dumpling, or participants can opt for chili instead.

“A lot of restaurants are donating the soup for this fundraiser,” Hammond said.

A bake sale will be going on just outside the facility, and local musician Skip Jones will be competing with the soup to warm visitors’ hearts. Hammond also plans to use the opportunity to ask folks who visit to volunteer some of their time, because that is the resource SAM25 has been most lacking as the recovery from the pandemic continues.

“A lot of people don’t realize, with their help and generosity, what we all can provide to people in need — whether it’s homelessness or just being at the poverty level,” she said.

In the pandemic years, SAM25 has had to raise funds through an online silent auction. The auction will continue this year, with 60 gift baskets and other items being auctioned off. The auction will start at 8 a.m. Sept. 12 and end at the same time on Sept. 17, with the baskets available to pick up later in the day. Details on the auction can be found at www.sam25.org.

An added incentive is that two anonymous donors have offered to match individual cash donations through Sept. 30, up to $10,000.

“That’s pretty generous,” Hammond said. “Some people donate a couple of baskets. Some people just donate some items, and that’s OK, and then we incorporate them into a basket.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com

DID YOU KNOW?

The Empty Bowls concept was created in 1990 by artist John Hartom and his wife, Lisa Blackburn, an art educator. Hartom suggested that students in his high school ceramics class help with a food drive in his Michigan community and through this project realized that there was a significant need for assistance to those who go hungry.

Together, the pair established the Empty Bowls concept, in which students would craft handmade ceramic bowls, invite school faculty to a soup lunch and receive donations from the faculty for the ceramic bowls. These bowls were a take-home symbol of hunger in their community.

Since that original event, the idea has been replicated by countless communities in the United States and more than 20 countries across the world, continually raising money to feed those living in poverty.

Source: Shawano Area Matthew 25