Empty Bowls is an international project to fight hunger, personalized by artists and art organizations on a community level. The money raised is donated to soup kitchens, food banks and other organizations fighting hunger locally.

Each community's events are independent. The project expands one group of concerned artists and students at a time, and events take place in many areas in the United States and Canada.

Charitable concept

Empty Bowls allows participating artists and groups to create and donate bowls, then serve a simple meal. In some communities, ceramic artists are joined by wood turners, glassblowers, fiber artists, metal smiths, painters, sculptors, and other artists and craftspeople. In most cases guests choose a bowl to use that day and to keep as a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world.

Project development

This project was founded by Lisa Blackburn and art teacher John Hartom in 1990-91 when they joined a drive to raise charitable funds in a  Michigan community. His idea was to organize a charitable event to give artists and art students a way to make a personal difference. These students made ceramic bowls in their high school art classes. The finished products were then used as serving pieces for a fundraising meal of soup and bread. Contributing guests kept the empty bowl. During the next year, Hartom and other participants developed this concept into the Empty Bowls project.