Volunteer bowl makers work to keep cause in front of community
Phillip Calkins is always seeking volunteers to help make handcrafted pottery bowls to help feed the hungry.
Volunteers with the Benton County Empty Bowls project, a 501(c)(3) organization, make and sell ceramic bowls. Proceeds are then donated to local food banks.
Calkins, one of the Empty Bowls founders, recently recruited three or four more people to help make the bowls. A picnic/appreciation event held on April 30 near Wishing Spring Gallery went very well, he said, netting new volunteers. With a few more recently added at a Fayetteville event, the number of bowl makers now totals 11.
“We’re always expanding,” Calkins said.
The bowls, made and fired in The Clay Studio by Wishing Spring Gallery, are always in demand. And those who help with the cause are needed year-round.
One of the biggest obstacles volunteers face is making sure people understand the cause is ongoing, not just a one-time annual soup event held in the fall.
Part of that education includes keeping the message in front of the community. To help with that effort, Benton County Empty Bowls volunteers plan to team up with St. Theodore’s Episcopal Church in late July to host an ice cream social. The effort will be the first of its kind. Empty Bowls volunteers will sell smaller bowls, made for ice cream, Calkins said.
The carefully crafted pottery bowls — often considered a soup holder — strike a chord with people. Calkins promotes and sells the bowls at Bella Vista Farmers Market each Sunday during the season. His son helps him set up and tear down the booth. Sometimes, a volunteer also will help. Calkins won’t be on hand on Sunday, May 15, as he plans to attend his granddaughter’s graduation. On each Sunday thereafter, however, Calkins plans to show and sell the bowls, keeping the cause in front of people.
The Farmers Market format works well, he said. More than half of those frequenting the market are familiar with the cause. Some are repeat customers.
A potter himself, Calkins oversees the monstrous effort that is making serious headway in eradicating area hunger concerns.
Calkins and Dave Johnson formed the Benton County Empty Bowls project, a 501(c)(3) organization, in 2019. The local organization was formed two years ago, but the original Empty Bowls began in 1990 when a Michigan High School art teacher involved students to make bowls and then sell them at a soup event.
The local all-volunteer effort supports food banks in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri.
The annual soup event will be held later in the fall, he added.
For information about the upcoming July event, or to volunteer, visit bentoncountyemptybowls.org.