On Monday, Jan. 16, students, parents, teachers, family and friends will gather on the campus of Malvern Prep to raise money to benefit the area’s homeless population. The 4th annual event is called Empty Bowls, and it combines Malvern’s love of clay with the school’s dedication to community service. On Martin Luther King Day, a designated national day of service, Malvern is seeking to build on the more than $27,500 raised in the first three years of Empty Bowls.
Empty Bowls is a months-long labor of love at Malvern, and is part of the national Empty Bowls movement, a national organization that has been supporting thousands of these events worldwide since 1990. Members of the Malvern community have created well over 800 ceramic bowls, both in the classroom and during nine open studio days held from October through January. Those bowls will be used at the event to serve a simple meal of donated soup and bread. Guests choose a bowl to use that day and to keep as a reminder that there are always empty bowls, and therefore hungry people, in the world. Additional bowls are also on sale at the event, along with silent auction pieces donated by students and area artists. All proceeds are donated to Bethesda Project, an organization that works to reaffirm the dignity of our homeless brothers and sisters in Philadelphia. You can learn more about this important provider of housing and services to homeless and poor citizens of Philadelphia at www.bethesdaproject.org.
