Jenifer Loon is executive director of PROP Food, which raised around $50,000 for hunger prevention at its 15th annual Empty Bowls soup-based fundraiser. Photos by Joanna Werch Takes
The 15th annual Empty Bowls fundraiser for PROP Food occurred earlier this week, on a bitterly cold Tuesday, Feb. 18, when temperatures reached 13 degrees below zero. Approximately 375 people warmed up with hot bowls of soup, provided by area restaurants and grocers, at the event’s lunch and dinner shifts, raising approximately $50,000 for PROP’s hunger prevention programs.
Janet Palmer and Sharon Peterson, left, helped organize the first Empty Bowls fundraiser for PROP after Peterson attended a similar event in Florida. Potter Grace Pass, right, included the note “Giving is a grace. Pass it on” on each bowl she made for the event.
Those who attended could make a free will donation for the simple meal on offer of soup, bread, and dessert and bid on silent auction items in support of PROP Food, which provides food assistance and support services to residents of Eden Prairie and Chanhassen facing financial, housing, or employment challenges. Attendees could also listen to musical entertainment, watch a live pottery demonstration, and take home a handmade bowl.
Volunteers like Bill Rodgers, in a blue shirt, and Mark Daly, in black, served soup to attendees like (from left) Bill and Kris Falk and Casey and Bill Hooke. The chicken wild rice soup in Rodgers’ tureen proved popular enough to run out in the evening and was replaced with a broccoli cheese soup.
Handmade bowls were on display for attendees to take home. Musical entertainment included the Prairie Ramblers jazz band from the Eden Prairie Community Band, whose members include clarinetist Tom Muehlbauer, percussionist Fred Koppelman, and tenor saxophonist Joe Singer.
Soup was the order of the day, with a variety of choices available at both the lunch and dinner servings, including a hearty sausage gumbo and a thick, chicken stew-like booya. Soup recipes decorated the doors and were available on tables in the fellowship hall at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, the location of the Empty Bowls event.