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Empty Bowls program helps to feed the needy

Dec 1, 2009

When Pat Bailey, a member of St. John Episcopal Church embarked upon a new project to feed the hungry, she had no idea how it would turn out.
Bailey said the project, which began in the summer, resulted in several months of planning, hard work and help from a large number of volunteers from throughout the community.
Jones County Junior College, volunteers with the American Red Cross, along with numerous local businesses supported the effort, which was designed to raise money to feed people locally.
Bailey said the Empty Bowls project is a national grassroots crafts-based effort designed to help end hunger.
“I just had a vision to feed the hungry and through community support, it all just came together,” Bailey said. “The church was able to conduct it’s first Empty Bowls with overwhelming success.”
Bailey said the project resulted in stunning support from people throughout the community.
“Everyone just pitched in and helped,” she said. “It’s truly been a great event designed to make a difference in the lives of people.”
Bailey said she began working on the project in July and with the help of Byron Myrick an instructor at Jones County Junior College, the process began.
Bailey said Myrick, along with some local volunteers helped to create 300 bowls for the project.
“Once we got the bowls made, everything else just went fast,” she recalled. “We had tremendous interest in the project.”
She said tickets sold for $15 and because of local support, they were sold out prior to the event.
“We were sold out two weeks before distribution day,” she said. “We had no idea how well this would go over, but we are pleased with the results. We will just have to plan for more next year.”
According to a press release from JCJC, Sophomore JCJC student April Shelby of Florence spent three hours one Saturday morning with JCJC alumni Carl and Mandy Buchanan, Jason Wilson, Lonnie Meadows, Jean Jackson, Crista Nelson, JCJC faculty, Melanie Eubanks and Mark Brown, and potter Warren Wells, molding the bowls.
“It’s been a labor of love,” said Myrick. “It would have been extremely difficult for us to pull this off if we couldn’t use the JCJC ceramics lab for the ten of us to volunteer our time to make the bowls. With approval from Dr. Jesse Smith (JCJC president) I knew this would become a reality.”
The JCJC ceramics lab has 12 pottery wheels allowing everyone to work together to make about 30 bowls each, with donated clay.
“It was nice to be able to get together and do this for the community,” said Melanie Eubanks.
Then, for a couple of months after the bowls were created, Myrick put on the finishing touches to complete the bowls.
Bailey said once the bowls were completed, they were delivered to the church, where volunteers from the church then began their work. She said with donations from local businesses, volunteers made the chicken chili that was served with the bowls.
Bailey said because everyone donated their time and the products used for the project, all of the proceeds from the event were given to the Jones County Red Cross, the Salvation Army and St. John’s Outreach to feed the hungry.
“Because of all the support we received, 100 percent of the money we raised will go to organizations that feed the hungry,” she said. “All the money stay locally to help the people of Jones County.”
Due to the overwhelming success of the project, Bailey said, the first year of the local Empty Bowls project has inspired her to begin planning for next year. She has already set a goal of 1,000 bowls for the project.
“It’s one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on,” she said. “It was such a great community outpouring project. Everyone just came together and worked for a good cause.”

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