Empty Bowls: Fundraiser to stop Food Insecurity
Rae Milstead | December 6, 2023
On Nov 15, 2023, the Warren Wilson College (WWC) hosted its 25th annual Empty Bowls event. The Empty Bowls event is a global initiative where communities put together a dinner and fundraise money to support communities that deal with food insecurity. Every year, WWC chooses a nonprofit to fundraise for and this year’s nonprofit was the Haywood Street’s Downtown Welcome Table.
Photo by Rae Milstead.
Elm Petitcolas, a junior and a part of the Bonner Crew, was on the events committee and helped organize this year’s empty bowls event. Petitcolas also worked closely with the nonprofit organization that would be receiving this year’s funds and shared how the impact of the nonprofit is intersectional.
“This year, we are partnering with Haywood Street Congregation’s Welcome Table, which is definitely an organization that deals with food insecurity,” Peticolas said. “But it also deals with a lot of different aspects of that and it's very intersectional. It also deals with homelessness, drug use, and abuse…people who really don’t normally have a spot at the table are being put first. The idea that people should have more than what they need. We shouldn’t always just have to survive on things. I think that’s really the mission of the Haywood Street Congregation.”
Gray Faro, also on Bonner Crew at WWC, is hopeful that the students at WWC gain insight from the Empty Bowls event and continue to talk about food insecurity.
“I hope that Wilson students take home food and also food for thought from this because I think it’s an event that starts a lot of conversations and can start a lot of ways of thinking about things you normally wouldn’t think about,” Faro said.
Julianna Cesarini works on the Community Engagement Office (CEO) Crew, and supports food access and coordinates with the Box of Baguettes (BOB) food pantry program on campus. Cesarini expressed how important and multifaceted the work to combat food hunger is.
“The whole principle of breaking down the haves and have-nots is so crucial in food justice,” Cesarini said. “There’s a big stigma around being someone who is food insecure…I really like the model at Haywood Street, we’re all just going to come together and sit around the same table and there isn’t a clear marker of who is volunteering and who is coming to just eat the meal. Who wouldn’t be eating a meal if they weren’t there?”
Photo by Ruby Jane Moser.