Since its inception in the early 1990’s Project Empty Bowl has fed thousands of individuals with AIDS locally and tens of thousands globally. It began when John Harton, a teacher in Bloomfield, MT, asked his high school ceramic students to make enough bowls to give a luncheon for the school staff. For $5 each, the guests received a simple meal of soup and bread, served in one of the handmade bowls. Guests were asked to accept their now empty bowls as a gift and to keep them as a reminder of all the empty bowls that still need filling. The money raised was donated to the local food bank.

The energy of those young potters, their teacher, and their guests breathed life into what has become the Empty Bowls Project. Since then, groups of potters have raised and donated millions of dollars to organizations like A Loving Spoonful that fight hunger the world over.

The premise of Empty Bowls is profoundly simple and has been repeated thousands of times by small groups and large. A few people get together to create bowls. They invite guests, as many as they have bowls, to share a simple meal and to donate a small sum, which provides food to those in need. In return, guests take home their empty bowl as a reminder of the continuing hunger within their own community.

In 1997, Rachelle Chinnery and Linda Doherty of Mudslingers Clay Studios brought the concept of Empty Bowls to A Loving Spoonful. They had the blessing and enthusiastic participation of the Potters Guild of British Columbia and the Canadian Craft & Design Museum. Together, they created Project Empty Bowl as a benefit for A Loving Spoonful.

Project Empty Bowl has become an annual signature fundraising event for A Loving Spoonful. The sole purpose of Project Empty Bowl is to raise funds so that A Loving Spoonful can continue delivering free meals and nutritional counselling & education to men, woman and children fighting HIV/AIDS.

With your help, we hope to make Project Empty Bowl 2009 the most successful fundraising event to date!

To find out how you be a part of Project Empty Bowl please call 604-682-6325.