Empty Bowls Program

Background

Empty Bowls is an international event to help fight hunger that has been running since 1990. It was founded by Lisa Blackburn and John Hartom in Michigan.

Their students made bowls and sold the finished products serving soup and bread at an event and donated 100% of their proceeds to their community. Since then, every year, schools across the country have joined in with creating and hosting individual events to donate back to their local communities.

Empty Bowls in the Puyallup Community

Rogers High School (RHS) Ceramics Teacher Amy Arand participated in empty bowl events as a high school student. As a Pacific Lutheran University student, Arand participated in the event hosted by Tacoma Food Network, which PLU students helped donate to its Empty Bowl Event.

A year after Arand joined the Puyallup School District (PSD) as an educator in 2017, she began hosting empty bowls event at RHS. In 2021, it slowly began to become an annual district-wide event as more PSD students participated to help glaze bowls. 

Since establishing the event in the PSD Community, students have raised an average of $2,000 annually which is donated to the Puyallup Food Bank.