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SIU students, community members sell artistic bowls to benefit area soup kitchen

An attendee of the SIU School of Art and Design and Southern Clay Works’ Empty Bowls fundraiser selects one of many ceramic bowls for sale Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016, outside The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery in Carbondale. (Morgan Timms | @Morgan_Timms)

By Shyanne Jasper
October 15, 2016

Ceramics artists sold empty bowls at a Carbondale grocery store on Saturday to help feed the hungry through a partnership that has been running for the last three years with an area soup kitchen.

Customers visiting the Neighborhood Co-op Grocery were greeted by a table of artistic ceramic bowls priced between $5 and $15. Proceeds from the sales went toward Good Samaritan Ministries of Carbondale and could be used to serve hundreds of meals, said Patty Mullen, the ministry’s assistant director.

“We fed 33,000 meals last fiscal year,” she said, speaking of the year-round efforts the soup kitchen provides. “The cost to run the soup kitchen for the year was $134,000, which includes the value of donated foods.”

SIU Leadership and Service Week 2024. Recognizing National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Events from November 15th through 21st.

Nik Price, a graduate student in printmaking from Mankato, Minn., inspects the design on a ceramic bowl held by SIU associate professor of ceramics Pattie Chalmers, alongside graduate students in ceramics Yen-Ting Chiu, of Taipei, Taiwon, and Kari Woolsey, of Boca Raton, Fla., on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016, during the Empty Bowls fundraiser outside The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery in Carbondale. Chalmers said the best part of the event will be giving a big check to the Good Samaritan House. "It's also been great meeting the community and for the students, the makers of the bowls, to be out here selling their creations," Chalmers said. (Morgan Timms | @Morgan_Timms) — Nik Price, a graduate student in printmaking from Mankato, Minn., inspects the design on a ceramic bowl held by SIU associate professor of ceramics Pattie Chalmers, alongside graduate students in ceramics Yen-Ting Chiu, of Taipei, Taiwon, and Kari Woolsey, of Boca Raton, Fla., on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016, during the Empty Bowls fundraiser outside The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery in Carbondale. Chalmers said the best part of the event will be giving a big check to the Good Samaritan House. “It’s also been great meeting the community and for the students, the makers of the bowls, to be out here selling their creations,” Chalmers said. (Morgan Timms | @Morgan_Timms)

Mullen said the fundraiser has raised more than $5,000 during the past two years.

Pattie Chalmers, an associate professor SIU’s art and design school who helped coordinate the event, said the program is part of an international effort taken on by ceramics students to help the homeless.

“Students often feel that they can’t make a difference in the world and this is an opportunity for them to see that they can do good in their own community,” Chalmers said.

Attendees of the SIU School of Art and Design and Southern Clay Works' Empty Bowls fundraiser queue alongside a table filled with ceramic bowls Saturday, Oct. 15., 2016, outside The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery in Carbondale. (Morgan Timms | @Morgan_Timms) — Morgan Timms
Attendees of the SIU School of Art and Design and Southern Clay Works’ Empty Bowls fundraiser queue alongside a table filled with ceramic bowls Saturday, Oct. 15., 2016, outside The Neighborhood Co-op Grocery in Carbondale. (Morgan Timms | @Morgan_Timms)

Chalmers said they plan to continue this as an annual fall event and the uncertainty of the state’s finances makes it all the more important to continue donating to the program.

“The need is even greater because of decreased state support and so our goal is always to sell all the bowls,” she said.

Staff writer Shyanne Jasper can be reached at 618-536-3325, [email protected] or on Twitter @sjasper_DE.

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