Feeding Northeast Florida hosts annual Empty Bowls luncheon
Handmade bowls of varying shapes, sizes, colors and designs filled two long rows of tables for guests to choose from at Feeding Northeast Florida’s annual Empty Bowls event.
“[Empty Bowls] is an incredible opportunity, number one, as a relatively young food bank, to be able to expose people to the work that we do, expose people to the problem that exists and continues to exist post-COVID for people who just simply can’t make a paycheck stretch far enough to cover those expenses,” said Feeding Northeast Florida President and CEO Susan King before the luncheon began. “We are just grateful to everybody who’s here, to the sponsors who have come out to support the event.”
Feeding Northeast Florida has picked up the baton for this event from its predecessor organization, Second Harvest of Northeast Florida, which hosted the Empty Bowls events for “many years — decades,” King added.
The bowls, created by Duval County Public School students and Clay Network artisans, served as “powerful reminder[s] of the empty bowls in our community” and the food insecurity people in Duval County — and around the globe — continue to face on a daily basis.
Feeding Northeast Florida was founded in 2014. According to its website’s “annual impact” statistics, it has served more than 260,000 people, distributed nearly 32 million pounds of food and provided nearly 73,000 meals a day. Approximately 400 people attended this year’s Empty Bowls.
By Michele Leivas
Resident Community News
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