Annual Empty Bowls Dinner Feeds the Hungry, Supports the Needy

The annual Empty Bowls Dinner, which benefits the Plattsburgh Interfaith Food Shelf, will be held Saturday, Nov. 11 from 5 to 7 p.m. in Algonquin Dining Hall, Rugar Street, on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus.

Dinner, donated by Chartwells, includes soup, bread, beverage and dessert and costs $10 for adults, $8 for students. Soup is served in bowls made and donated by students in Assistant Professor Ali Della Bitta’s ceramics classes at SUNY Plattsburgh, as well as those from children who attend the Ted K Center in Plattsburgh and from the North Country Potters Guild. 

“We have 400 from my students and myself already,” said Della Bitta. “And I try to go to the event with more than 500 from us.”

Diners choose their own bowl, which they then get to keep. The empty bowls represent hunger around the world.

The annual fundraiser, which stems from a national movement, started on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus more than 15 years ago with Associate Professor of Art Emerita Beryl Matthews, who had learned about the project at a ceramics conference. Since Matthews’ retirement, Della Bitta has carried on the tradition.

For more information, contact the SUNY Plattsburgh Art Department at 518-564-2179.