A Heartfelt Thank You

We have many people to thank for making the 2010 Itasca Empty Bowls Project a success. If I’ve missed anyone, and I hope I haven’t, please write a comment and I’ll add them to the list.

All of these folks, along with those who attended Empty Bowls-related events, are directly responsible for raising over $8,300 for Second Harvest and the Community Café! This money will go a long way to provide much needed food for area residents. Thank you all!!

Food Donors:

• Forest Lake Restaurant
• Wylde Thyme Catering
• Brewed Awakenings Coffee House
• Sawmill Inn
• Bixby’s
• Barb’s Korner Kitchen Catering
• Quadna Restaurant
• Clementine’s Restaurant
• Second Harvest Food Bank
• Janicke Bakery
• Craiglow’s Cake Kingdom
• Timberlake Lodge

Empty Bowls Pre-Events:

• Itasca County Court House: Randy Carlson, Amanda Schultz, and Irene Koski.
• Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital: Colleen Swanson, Sarah Bignall, Laurel Kuusinen, Joan Whitted, and Sandy Harling
• Itasca Resource Center: Becky Boelter and Holly Downing
• KAXE: Heidi Holtan and Penny Holcomb

Celebrity Auction Reception Food and Wine: Penny Holcomb, Susan Jordahl-Bubacz, Pete DeCenzo, Little Penguin Wine
Music: Holly Newton and her piano students

A special thanks to Justin Linnell and the staff at MacRostie Art Center for all they do, and to clay studio volunteers LuAnn Hansen, Sandy Schildt, April Keilen, Axel Lind, and Karen Olson.

Volunteers: Gerald Nelson, George Parker, Katie Barrett, Mitchell Anderson, Greenway Key Club, Kay Merwin, Judy Anderson-Bauer, Gerry Mertes, Frances Barten, Lily Gullickson, Chris Rostvold, Karen Karls, Connie Vincent, Karen Oothoudt, Jane Bonnesen.

Multimedia Presentation: David McDonald’s ICC Introduction to Digital Photography and Introduction to Digital Audio Students

Schools:

• Sherrie El-Nashaar, and Robert J Elkington Middle School Students
• Kraig Dibb, and Northern Lights Community School Students
• Tonya Borgeson and IItasca Community College Students
• Kristi Cole and Deer River High School Students

Media: Herald Review, KAXE, ICTV and Scenic Range News

Clay Artists:

• Butch Holden
• Sandy Schildt
• Karen Olson
• Bill Donager
• Joan Beech
• HaysKids
• Bob Carls
• Larry Brion
• Daryn Lowman
• Bowl Made by Cyrus Swann, glazed by Jan Stenson
• M’lou Brubaker
• Bruce Bartos
• April Keilen
• Bowl made by Nathan Bray, glazed by LuAnn Hansen
• Jose Sanchez
• Kraig Dibb

Empty Bowls Committee: Sue Estee, Paula Brandel, Susan Jordahl-Bubacz, LuAnn Hansen, Audrey Moen, Axel Lind, Becky LaPlant and Kathy Loucks

Empty Bowls Project Blog and Guest Bloggers: Becky LaPlant, Steve Downing, David McDonald, Michelle from Grand Acts of Giving, and Sarah Bignall

We received many positive comments about the change of venue and the variety of bowls available this year. And the soups – once again local restaurants and caterers came through with an outstanding variety of delicious soups. Estimated attendance was 210.

Celebrity Bowl Auction tomorrow at “The Mac”

Preparations are in full swing for the Itasca Empty Bowls event on Thursday, and for a reception being held tomorrow night at the MacRostie Art Center.

If you’re out and about between 5 – 7 p.m. consider yourself invited to drop by for alittle food, socializing, and to check out the silent auction featuring a beautiful selection of handcrafted bowls donated by local artists.

I caught up with the Mac’s executive director Paula Brandel during one of the Paint a Bowl Parties, and asked her to say a few words about this new event. We hope to see you there!

How do you take a photo of hunger?

Intro to Digital Photography student Kjera Gustafson is one of the contributors to multi-class project that will be shown at Thursday's Empty Bowls event

Many thanks to David McDonald at ICC for focusing his students on the issue of hunger, and for penning this guest post for the Itasca Empty Bowls Blog.

How do you take a photo of hunger? What is the sound of hunger?

This is what the Mass Communication classes at Itasca Community College have been working on for the past few weeks in preparation for their audio/visual slide show that will be shown at the Itasca Empty Bowls Project event on April 15 from 11:00-2:00 at the Timberlake Lodge.

The Introduction to Digital Photography class had the assignment of taking three photos of hunger and combining them together into one image with text using computer software. The slide show will have the three original photos and the final edited version to show how creative students can be using digital technology. The Introduction to Digital Audio class has been tasked to compose a soundtrack to accompany the images.

Emphasis is on using one’s imagination together with lots of sound effects and digital editing techniques.

For more information about Mass Communication classes at ICC, please go to www.itascacc.edu or call (218) 322-2300.

Empty Bowls/2010

Thanks to Guido Downing for this post to the Itasca Empty Bowls blog – and for his long-standing support of the project!

I was working at MacRostie Art Center (MAC) when we set out on the Itasca Empty Bowls Project adventure nine years ago. We had a small start-up grant from the Northland Foundation—and not much else.

After close examination, bowls receive the Giduo seal of approval

Depending on your belief system, MAC’s clay studio at the time was strictly something waiting to happen: disaster or miracle. Opinions fell along predictable lines, but there was no overstating the challenge. We had virtually no gear (one wheel, no pug mill, a broken kiln); no clay (till the Northland check cleared); you descended to the kiln room, through a jagged hole in the brick wall, on a tiered deathtrap of splintered boards and broken chairs. MAC’s insurance profile hung in the balance everytime someone went down there. Or tried to get back up. Carrying a load of fired clay product.

But we did have the problem—hunger—and people, a community, willing to tackle it. Drifting around the MAC clay studio recently, between glaze applications on a beautiful bowl swiftly turning unbeautiful in my hands, I reflected on the differences, then to now.
More and better deployed gear and space. A metal door—lockable—to the kiln room. Tim Bonner’s magnificent welded-steel ‘Stairway to Heaven.’

The project has outgrown MAC. There are satellite partners. Pre-events. The bowls are better. The revenue stream, reliable. There’s a blog.

Is resolution inevitable? Maybe. To date, the problem is trending in the same direction as the project. More. Bigger. Counterintuitive, but there it is.

You have neighbors who are hungry. You can help. April 15, Timberlake Lodge, 11-2. See you there.

The soup’s on at KAXE!

Joan Foster from Brewed Awakenings coffeehouse cooking up a pot of borscht in the KAXE kitchen.

Our friends at KAXE have embraced Empty Bowls in a big way this year. In addition to working behind the scenes on the planning committee (thank you Penny and Heidi!), they are hosting an Empty Bowls pre-event tomorrow from 11:00 – 1:00 pm at their studios on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Here’s a link to their website to learn more about the event, including the soups being served and a recipe for Joan Foster’s highly acclaimed borscht.

A colorful assortment of bowls stand ready for Saturday's KAXE Empty Bowls Pre-Event

You can also listen to Heidi’s recent interview with Sue Estee, the director of Second Harvest North Central Food Bank.

Sue reports that food shelf use is up 13 percent and that it’s been a tough year to raise donations to meet the need – a trend that mirrors other food shelves across the state. She explains that for every dollar raised, about five meals can provided. That’s why events like Empty Bowls are so important to lessening the impact of hunger in our area.

“Hunger is a whole lot like an iceberg”

Image by Michael Nye of Helen, an artist who was hit by a truck several years ago. After the accident, she lived in her car.

The title up there is a quote by photographer Michael Nye, whose work and new exhibition was featured Tuesday on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Nye spent the better part of five years traveling the US collecting images and stories of hunger. His new exhibition, “About Hunger & Resilience,” is currently on display at San Antonio’s Witte Museum.

Nye’s hope is “that this exhibit is not just about making noise but about making things better, to see hunger as it is — without any illusion. And I think it’s easier, then, to take it on and look for solutions.”

Have you been out to Second Harvest lately? You needn’t go any further than the parking lot to see the faces of hunger – right here in Itasca County – without illusion. I watch as people load food into their cars and think there for the grace of God go I. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Grand Acts of Giving reaches out to the Community Cafe

Thanks to Michelle from Grand Acts of Giving for penning this guest post to the Itasca Empty Bowls Blog.

Hi, everyone ….. I am Michelle D. M. with “Grand Acts of Giving” (GAOG). We are a fairly new group of dedicated volunteers whose desire is to ” Reach out in our community and make a difference.” There are so many needs to fulfill and we are stepping up to the challenge of doing the best we can do to help others.

Today our group had the opportunity to serve at the Community Cafe. We want others to know just how fortunate we are to live in a community with resources such as the Community Cafe. Volunteers from our group, as well as some others, served over 190 meals today. Our dining area was full and many meals were also distrubuted as ” take-out” meals. To us, this means there are families who did not go hungry tonight!

It is a great feeling to know that our efforts provide meals for others. For, without volunteers, there are many who might otherwise go hungry. Funding is simply not available for these programs to operate without volunteers.

As all of us know, times are especially tough for many people right now. But, what a difference we can all make by reaching out to our fellow men ( women, children). We volunteer, because we care. We also have a lot of fun when we gather to serve others!

The Itasca Empty Bowls Project supports the Community Cafe and Second Harvest Food Bank, as proceeds from the sale of these bowls (soup and bread) go to buy food for our hungry neighbors, our families, and our friends. This project is a great example of how people in our community reach out to others.

Each of us can make a difference! “Thank-you” to everyone who supports the “Empty Bowls Project.” Because of you, one more child will not go to bed hungry tonight!

Smiles,

Michelle

Pre-events raise funds and awareness

The IRC pre-event had a wonderful variety of bowls and soups.

The generous spirit in the Itasca area never ceases t o amaze me. 2010 Itasca Empty Bowls Project committee member Audrey Moen supported volunteers at three organizations who coordinated what turned out to be very successful pre-events in support of the project.

A HUGE THANK YOU to all the coordinators:

• Itasca County Court House: Randy Carlson, Amanda Schultz, and Irene Koski.

• Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital: Colleen Swanson, Sarah Bignall, Laurel Kuusinen, Joan Whitted, and Sandy Harling

• Itasca Resource Center: Becky Boelter and Holly Downing

A HUGE THANK YOU also goes out to the staff at each location for providing the soup and bread. I attended the event at the IRC and personally sampled five, well maybe six, excellent soups. And to everyone for buying a bowl and a bowl of soup.

Together, the three locations raised a total of $2,498! An incredible sum in itself, but remember, for every dollar raised, the food bank is able to purchase six dollars worth of food. This bumps the money raised to $14,988 dollars, which is an incredible gift to our friends and neighbors in need.

As Audrey says in her thank you letters to the coordinators, “It is written that many hands make for light work. Your ability to host this event made things so much easier to raise the funds needed.”

How true.

Hunger is multi-generational – so is working towards its end

A family participates in Open Glazing at The Mac

If you attend this year’s Empty Bowls Event at the Timberlake Lodge, and I hope you will, you’ll see tables filled with colorfully glazed bowls from which to choose. Over one hundred of these bowls were glazed during last Saturday’s Open Glazing event and later in the week by participants in the Itasca AGES program.

Local clay artist Karen Olson volunteered her time at Saturday’s event. “I think we have some talented people in the community,” said Karen when I asked her how it went. “It was great to see whole families coming in to paint bowls together. Young and old gathered together in the studio. They laughed and had fun as they shared the common goal of ending hunger in the community. It was a good feeling to be there.” Sue Estee (Second Harvest) and Axel Lind (Community Café) assisted Karen and the dozens of community members who turned out.

The Itasca AGES program is a multi-generational project engaging area youth and seniors in recreational, art, and environmental activities, and a great example of the diverse community participation and support the Itasca Empty Bowls Project is blessed with. LuAnn Hansen was in studio with the group, which included members of the Bovey-Coleraine Youth Center and Greenway Key Club and several local artists and seniors who worked with the kids to produce some awesome bowls.

Artists from the Bovey-Coleraine Youth Center and Greenway Key Club, along with older artists and seniors load the kiln.

Susan Jordahl-Bubacz lends her passion to both Empty Bowls and area youth. “These are amazing young people, and talented young artists,” she said. “There is so little in the way of artistic opportunities for some youth, thus they were so excited to get the opportunity to work in a ‘real’ art studio at the MacRostie –and to be able to help with Empty bowls and the greater cause of hunger in the Itasca area.”

If you attend this year’s Empty Bowls Event at the Timberlake Lodge, and I hope you will, be sure to look up from the tables filled with colorfully glazed bowls to the artwork on the walls, also created by these young artists.

Grand Itasca to host Empty Bowls Pre-Event

A little known fact is that several Grand Rapids-based organizations support Empty Bowls by hosting their own events for employees. This year Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital joins the ranks with a twist – they’re opening their event to anyone who wants to drop by. Thanks to Sarah Bignall at Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital for sending us this post about their upcoming Empty Bowls Pre-Event.

Grand Itasca will be hosting an Empty Bowls on Tuesday, March 23 from 11:30am-1:30pm at Grand Itasca in Meeting Rooms ABC. Grand Itasca staff and volunteers will be making a variety of soup, chilis and stews.

Cost of the event is $15 and includes a handcrafted bowl, all you can eat soup, bread, dessert and drink.

All the proceeds raised go 100% to the ability to address hunger in Itasca County. Half of the proceeds go to Second Harvest; the other half to help the Community Café. For every dollar donated, six dollars in food is able to be purchased through out local food bank.

For tickets or more information call 218/999-1444.