Empty Bowls Dinner Raises Thousands for Community Kitchen
Ryleigh Johnson | March 25, 2024
Photos by Kai Goldstein
On March 19, Warren Wilson College (WWC) hosted its 26 annual Empty Bowls Benefit Dinner, with the proceeds going to Blunt Kitchen, a volunteer-led organization in Swannanoa, North Carolina, that provides hot dinner free of charge every day of the week.
The event, which is normally held in the fall but was postponed in the wake of Hurricane Helene, acts as a fundraiser for one of WWC’s community partners each year. Those who attended the event purchased a ticket whose proceeds generated over $2,000 for Blunt Kitchen. Included in the ticket cost was a dinner of soup and bread, which were donated from local restaurants and grocery stores, and a handmade bowl to eat out of, which was the attendees’ to keep. Every bowl was handcrafted by WWC’s Ceramics Crew.
“I was making bowls up until the very end,” Vienna Paulsen, a freshman arts and crafts major and member of the Ceramics Crew, said. “I pulled these [bowls] right out of the kiln this morning, at eight.”
The event provides an opportunity for members of the crew to showcase their work to the broader community.
“I'm just so excited…to do what I love and [to] see people enjoy the product of that is super invigorating and pumps me up,” Paulsen said.
The handmade bowls were a big draw for the students in attendance, like freshman arts and crafts major Violet Premeaux.
“I’m here because I don't really go to Warren Wilson events as often as I'd like to, and this seemed really cool, and there's food and you get to keep a really beautiful bowl,” Premeaux said.
Maureen Tyne, another freshman at WWC, echoed this sentiment, adding that she initially learned about the event from a friend of a friend who is on the Community Engagement Crew.
“I came to the event because I am always in the mood to meet new people and try new food and look at what the Wilson students are putting together,” Tyne said. “Right now, they're putting together these beautiful bowls and this beautiful event. I saw Gabe [a member of the Community Engagement Crew] tabling to sell tickets, which is how I heard about it.”
The Community Engagement Crew was heavily involved in the coordination, set-up and planning of the event. The crew voted on which community partner the proceeds should benefit, with Blunt Kitchen eventually chosen because of the potential positive impact the money could have for the small organization.
“There's a need for money there [at Blunt Kitchen] and…their funds are coming from a nonprofit, and they're not sure that it's gonna keep on flowing,” Izzy Zbyszewski said, a sophomore on the Community Engagement Crew who has worked closely with Blunt Kitchen.
Blunt Kitchen began during the aftermath of Helene as a grassroots disaster relief kitchen operated by Eddy Schoeffmann, the owner of Blunt Pretzels in Swannanoa, N.C.. As neighbors and community members heard about the kitchen, they started to come to the kitchen for food and supplies – and to offer help.
“I came on day two after the storm, looking for water with my wife,” Christopher Smith, a volunteer chef at Blunt Kitchen, said. “I made my way down there [to the kitchen], and I saw that they had a lot of people that they were trying to feed a lot of scared people in line, including myself. I asked Eddy [Schoeffmann], who's the owner of the shop, if he needed help, and he kind of desperately said, ‘Yes, please help.’”
Since those early days, Blunt Kitchen has made thousands of meals. While the number of people they serve has shrunk as those devastated by the hurricane have regained access to food, water and electricity, they still provide about 400 meals every night.
“There was food scarcity before [the hurricane],” Smith said. “There's going to be food scarcity after… And we're here to address it.”
The kitchen faces uncertainties surrounding funding as relief organizations withdraw from the area. Their primary partner, World Central Kitchen, is slated to exit Asheville in April, leaving them with a funding deficit. Smith sees the Empty Bowls benefit as a step towards filling that gap.
“This event is an incredible honor, and the award associated with it is going to help us tremendously,” Smith said. “We're gonna put that right into food ingredients for the community, for Swannanoa…We really do need [the money], and our commitment is all of that will go into food for the community, every cent of that will go into ingredients.”
Those interested in volunteering with Blunt Kitchen can contact Zbyszewski, Gabe Ranke or reach out to them directly.
