Paint a Bowl and Help the Hungry

By Hilary Brown 

This Valentine’s Day, the Georgia Museum of Art will host a bowl painting session from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for visitors to create bowls for the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia annual Empty Bowls Luncheon. The session will happen on the first floor of the museum.

The luncheon itself takes place on March 5 at 11:30 a.m. at the Classic Center, where guests receive a meal of soup and sandwich, a bowl produced by Mudpatch Creations and decorated by volunteers and the chance to bid on silent auction items. The bowls are decorated by volunteers throughout the Athens community, who pay $7 (to paint and donate a bowl), $14 (to paint and keep a bowl and donate $7 to the food bank) or $21 (to paint and keep a bowl, donate $14 to the food bank and receive a ticket to the luncheon).

Students from the UGA department of ceramics within the Lamar Dodd School of Art will be on hand at the Feb. 14 painting event to provide instruction and inspiration as well as glazes and materials not available at the other bowl-painting sites. Other bowl paintings are scheduled for Jan. 25 from 9 a.m.-noon and Jan. 27 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, 861 Newton Bridge Road, Athens.

Participants are asked but not required to register in advance by contacting the food bank’s Tina Laseter at 706-354-8191 or donations@foodbanknega.org. Payment is due upon completing a bowl and can be made via cash, check or credit card on the food bank’s website. Participants who choose to keep their bowls can pick them up at the museum after firing is complete.

Founded in 1992, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia distributed nearly 10.3 million pounds of food (or the equivalent of 8.3 million meals) through 215 partner agencies in 2012. It works with community programs including Agency Distribution, the Mobile Pantry Program, the Lena Watkins Emergency Senior Brown Bag Program, Food 2 Kids, Feeding a Family, Kids Café and the Charlie and Jessica Ostick “Stock the Pantry” Program.