Bowled over by kindness: soup lovers raise $6,000
Fifth annual charity event will assist local food banks and soup kitchens
Soup eaters chowing down from brand new bowls kept their slurping to a minimum at the fifth instalment of a charity luncheon Sunday afternoon.
For $25, ticket holders to Empty Bowls Windsor and Essex County picked from 300 bowls, each handcrafted and donated by local potters. After filling up on soup served by nine restaurants and caterers, patrons got to take their bowls home with them for keeps. The standing-room-only meal at the Optimist Community Centre gym supported local food banks and soup kitchens. Before the event began, hungry people waited in a line that snaked throughout the building. Many of them held non-perishable food donations to drop in a bin by the entrance, which overflowed once the line was inside. “There are a lot of people that need in our city, and it’s a way those of us who don’t need can enjoy ourselves for an afternoon and give back to our area,” said event organizer Dayna Wagner. “This is grassroots, just people coming together and making it happen.” The 250 tickets available for the event sold out, Wagner said, meaning it raised over $6,000 for its benefactors, the Downtown Mission and Feed Windsor, which operates out of New Song Church on Drouillard Road. Trish MacDonald, one of the 12 potters who gave their work to the cause for free, made 45 bowls for the event. Talking about being helping to feed those in need gave her goose bumps, she said. “It’s one of the greatest initiatives, and everyone’s happy,” MacDonald said. “People talk about how they’ve been four or five times to this event and they love having the memento. They’ve got bowls for life now.” The LaSalle resident and owner of River Rock Pottery watched people at the tables around her dip their spoons into her creations. Her four-year-old daughter Julia sat next to her eating a potato and bacon soup from the grey bowl she had picked.
“It’s an honour to be here,” MacDonald said. “Seeing people walk around with your bowl in their hand is exciting.”