Our Silver Anniversary!
Since 1990, Empty Bowls has been a grassroots movement of artists in towns and cities around the world helping fund food banks in their local communities.
Think globally, act locally, change the world is their goal.
Prescott residents have supported their own Empty Bowls movement since 1997. Prescott Empty Bowls is organized by the Prescott Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
Several members of the Prescott fellowship attended an Empty Bowls luncheon in Phoenix. They came back and the congregation made soup in their own kitchens and handed it out to neighbors and friends on the deck of their congregation hall.
The next year, Bobbie Root, a local ceramics artist, took on the role of event coordinator and asked friends to make bowls.
In 2000, Chef Todd Bulock was responsible for recruiting restaurants to create and donate soups.
The event was moved to the Courthouse Plaza to accommodate local chefs making soups and artisans making ceramic bowls. Dale and Glenna Hudson, longstanding members of Prescott Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, helped with logistics and have been involved ever since.
In 2002, Eunice Ricklefs took over as coordinator and held that position until 2017. Laura Bloomenstein was brought on board to help make bowls. She has been a ceramics instructor at Yavapai College for over 20 years. Yavapai College students donated over 350 bowls in 2021.
The Prescott Area Woodturners, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inform, educate and foster the art and craft of wood lathe-turning, also create bowls. The group donated 130-plus bowls in 2020.
In 2016, Chef Peter Padilla, head banquet chef at the Hassayampa Inn, took over recruiting chefs and we now have fourteen participating restaurants.
In 2017, Kelsey Wilkes joined the team and has lead the event for the last two years; Empty Bowls raised and distributed a record $21,000 to local food banks in 2020.
This year Empty Bowls is back on the Prescott Courthouse Square (after the Granite Peak congregation parking lot in 2020 and online in 2021) where people will wait in line to select a handcrafted bowl and two soups from local restaurants..
The event will be held Sunday, Sept. 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $20. For more information or to buy tickets online visit https://prescott-empty-bowls.square.site or Facebook at Empty Bowls of Prescott Arizona.
Photography by Prescott Empty Bowls
