No more empty bowls in Temecula

The ceramics classroom at Temecula Valley High School was abuzz with volunteers of all ages, making bowls to stamp out hunger. (Photo by Maggie Avants)

Choose a handmade bowl. Fill it with soup. Keep the bowl.

That is the slogan of a student-driven community service project, Empty Bowls Temecula, to raise money for the area’s hungry.

As many as 75 students, teachers and parents gathered Saturday in a ceramic classroom at Temecula Valley High School. The goal was to hit a quota of 1,000 bowls.

The hand-crafted bowls will be filled with soup and sold for $10 at a March 11 fundraiser dinner, with the proceeds going to the Temecula Food Pantry, the Temecula-Murrieta Rescue Mission and Food for the Poor in Haiti.

“It is quite a compliment that high school students could produce this volume of bowls,” ceramics teachers Tom Brown said.

With bowls stacked on shelving and available countertops, an overflow table in the hallway outside the classroom was running out of surface space, too.

As of Saturday morning, they had already hit 750. Students in Brown’s class have been busy throwing the bowls since January, and invited the community to pitch in. Ceramic students made their way around the room, giving quick lessons on the pottery wheel.

Temecula residents Bill and Betsy Schork, along with their son Thomas, 9, and 8-year-old twins Matthew and Tasia, were elbow-deep in sculpting clay making bowls for the cause.

They plan to attend the dinner to purchase back the bowls they made, as well as buy some for the kids’ grandparents in Chicago, Betsy said.

Her children are no strangers to community service, she said. Since their oldest son Thomas was 1 year old, they have been helping out at the Rancho Damacitas group home in Temecula. Most holidays, the family does something for the home’s 36 foster children.

“We are a cooking family, so for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we all cook together for the kids,” Betsy said.

What started as an idea for English teacher Meline Akashian quickly turned into something much larger. Akashian said after she attended an Empty Bowls event in another city, she began talking to her students about doing one locally.

“I knew this community was full of people with good hearts, so I knew it would fly,” Akashian said. “Now so many people from across campus have stepped up, and it is pulling in kids of all types who may not be involved [in extracurricular activities] otherwise.”

Alyssa Arce, a junior, said she just loves to help people.

“I thought this was a really cool idea, and what we are doing will help the Temecula Food Pantry pay for a new building. Their offices are so small,” Alyssa said.

Tasia Schork, 8, gets a lesson on the pottery wheel from Brandon Schneider, a senior at Temecula Valley High School. (Photo by Maggie Avants)

Akashian said the Empty Bowl committee involved students from several groups on campus, including Associated Student Body, PTSA, National Honor Society and Invisible Children.

Peter Minegar, a senior and ASB co-president, said he has been spending most of his time on the organizing side. Peter and a few others are working on a documentary based on the project, and he wanted to capture some behind-the-scenes footage.

“We don’t really see all the work they are putting into it. But making all the bowls is a huge undertaking,” he said.

The Empty Bowls dinner will feature music by students, teachers and parents, and is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. March 11 in Temecula Valley High School’s mini-gym.

Tickets can be purchased at the door, or in advance on the Empty Bowls Web site.

Maggie Avants is the education editor with SWRNN.com.

Tags: Alyssa Arce, Betsy Schork, Bill Schork, Empty Bowls, invisible children, Maggie Avants, Meline Akashian, National Honor Society, Peter Minegar, Rancho Damacitas, SWRNN, Temecula, Temecula Food Pantry, temecula valley high school, Temecula-Murrieata Rescue Mission, Tom Brown

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 9:47 am and is filed under Education, Local News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.