Filling empty bowls

Diners can enjoy soup while helping the hungry and homeless through St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore’s third annual Empty Bowls fundraiser.

The March 7 event at College of Notre Dame of Maryland offers a chance to sample delectable soups from more than a dozen restaurants, enjoy live music and family-friendly activities and take home a ceramic bowl donated by local potters and painted by children or adult volunteers.

Organizers hope to raise more than $80,000 through the fundraiser.

Potters donate the bowls and bake them in a kiln, and diners leave the event with the empty bowl – and a reminder that bowls remain empty for hungry people.

Kathy Fick, a Towson-based artist who makes pottery and offers “paint-your-own” pottery parties, donated paints, other supplies and her services for Empty Bowls.

This year, Empty Bowls painters included clients of Sarah’s Hope, a St. Vincent de Paul shelter for homeless women and children in West Baltimore.

“I hold the bowl and I explain that this is empty now, and this is for people who do not have food,” said Ms. Fick, a parishioner of St. Mary of the Assumption, Govans.

Catholic Review

The Catholic Review is the official publication of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.