More than 100 meals served at year's first Empty Bowls Project dinner

Man hours put into preparing for the annual Empty Bowls Project charity dinner began as early as February, and until late Saturday all went as planned. However, as organizers and volunteer university students found, serving the masses can quickly turn unpredictable.

Around 25 students spent Saturday readying menu items for the event's first meal Sunday at the Salvation Army. Phil Dreshfield, an instructor of hospitality management and dietetics courses at Southeast Missouri State University, asked his students to volunteer time preparing soups, breads and desserts for the attendees.

Dreshfield, the head chef, said he and organizer Dr. Anne Marietta, an associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Services at Southeast, discovered late Saturday evening that a power outage at the university caused most of the next day's meal items to ruin when the cooler on campus containing the food reached a balmy 61 degrees.

However, volunteers began work earlier than planned Sunday and were able to redo preparations for the dinner without further setbacks.

Dreshfield said the mishap turned out to be a learning experience for his students.

Four year old Elias Kyle of Cape GIrardeau sits with his empty bowl Sunday at the Salvation Army in Cape Girardeau. Last years Empty bowls raised 7000 dollars which was given out to local food banks and food pantries. (LAURA SIMON)

"They can get some real-world experience from a situation like this one. Sometimes the food is lost, and you have to figure out what to do next," he said.

The menu Sunday consisted of three homemade soups, a vegetarian chili, breads and desserts.

Callie Hoffman, cochairwoman of student involvement with the event and dietetics major at Southeast, said she saw more than 100 meals sold by 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Experience obtaining grants to fund Empty Bowls has been a vital component of the goals Marietta has for students the past few years. A grant from the United Way funds the events, allotting money to purchase materials for bowl crafting and the execution of the dinners and silent auction. In order to obtain grant money, Marietta had her students practice tactics in grant application. In return, they were rewarded with practical experience in marketing and planning.

The purpose of the Empty Bowls events are to donate the entire proceeds from the sale of the meals and bowls sold at the silent auction to the local food bank, who in turn supplies food pantries in the area.

Marietta said many individual volunteers as well as businesses and organizations donated time and supplies to making the event a success and credits local artists and university students with the bowls handcrafted specifically for the event.

Since February, around 850 bowls have been fired and glazed to be sold in the silent auction and to dinner attendees. Marietta said she expects that number to rise with another donation of bowls, from an art class instructed by Benjie Hu, for Wednesday's dinner at Dearmont Hall on the university campus.

The dinner is open to the public. Tickets are $12 and attendees may choose a bowl to keep as a souvenir. Food will be served beginning at 5 p.m.

Dreschfield said he hopes for return attendees because Wednesday will have a different menu. Students from his culinary theory class will prepare curried butternut squash soup and two desserts straight from a bakery menu: pumpkin bars and chocolate honeyed brownies.

Marietta said the total amount raised would be available after Wednesday's event, and she was looking forward to topping the $7,000 raised last year.