The Empty Bowls Caring Hearts event is again held in a virtual, drive through format because of the pandemic.

The event happened this year Saturday, Oct. 16 at the Moose Hall located on Fort William Road.

The event dates back to 1990, when a high school art teacher in Michigan helped students that were looking for a way to support a local food drive. What came of this was a class project to make ceramic bowls for a fundraiser dinner. Since then many variations on the event have become an annual affair across North America, and around the world.

All proceeds from the local event will support the efforts of Shelter House and the Thunder Bay Food Bank. The event features bowl cozies on sale for $10 each, and there is a 50/50 raffle as well, people able to purchase a ticket for $20.

Organizer Robin Cooper says the fundraiser would not be nearly as successful without local help.

“We’ve had lots of support from the community from sponsors and supporters, Impala Canada, TBayTel, Roots to Harvest, and also Northern Unique Bakery, The Moose Hall, they’ve all helped us out so that we can offer the bowls and the soup,” explains Cooper. “The bowls are really the heart of the event, those handmade pottery bowls, and we couldn’t do that without the help of the Thunder Bay Potters Guild and some other community potters.”

Last year, Empty Bowls raised around $30,000 through the event and donations, along with the 50/50 draw.

Cooper says they are estimating the same this time around.

“This year we’re hoping to be pretty close to that as well,” says Cooper. “We’re really proud of that, and over the 22 years of Empty Bowls we’ve been able to donate over $350,000 to Shelter House and Thunder Bay Food Bank. When you look at it in the big scheme of things, that’s not a lot of money compared to other fundraisers, but we are consistently able to donate a good chunk of money every year and we’re really proud of that, and we know that the organizations really rely on that.”

The goal for the 2022 event is to return to an in-person format, depending on how restrictions alter as a result of the pandemic.

To learn more about hunger in Canada, you can visit this page on the Empty Bowls Thunder Bay website.