The El Paso Community College’s Art Student Society sponsored
its third annual Empty Bowls of El Paso event on Saturday January
27th in conjunction with the Culinary Arts department at the TM Campus.
Empty Bowls is a project of the Imagine and Render Group, a non-profit
organization, dedicated to positive and lasting social change through
the arts, education and projects that build the community.
Empty Bowls of El Paso is also an event to help raise money to eliminate
hunger in El Paso. All the proceeds collected stay in El Paso and
go to the West Texas Food Bank that serves El Paso County.
Culinary
art chef students prepare meals
in the kitchen at the TM campus.
Photo by Nathan Coleman
They
assist 85 organizations in El Paso including the Salvation Army, Rescue
Mission and the Center for Battered Women.
Last year the Art Student Society and the Culinary Arts department
raised $6,000 dollars.
Mary Scott, Valle Verde Art Instructor and club faculty advisor said,
“This event is a big help to those organizations because people
really do need food to live.”
Suzanne Roy, chef assistant said, “It makes me feel successful…
it makes feel like I’m doing my job because their success means
my success. I enjoy helping the students with any of their endeavors
when it comes to the culinary or any agriculture field.”
Lending a hand at Empty Bowls this year were 10 students from the
Culinary Arts department’s best chefs in El Paso, AFC members
and 10 students from the TM Campus. Scott also enlisted 25 students
to help at the event.
“I am happy for my students to learn that the arts can be used
specifically to benefit the community,” Scott said.
Students who signed up for the Service Learning Program and have volunteered
20 hours of their time and service to a non-profit organization will
receive a certificate through the Service Learning Program that is
available at EPCC.
Scott said, “I think that the experience they gain in serving
the community helps their own art work become better and richer.”
This year there was a variety of soup bowls and soups to fill them
such as: Tortilla, chicken noodle, corn chowder served with fresh
bread and bottled water.
Throughout the year, 250 to 300 people from the El Paso community
made bowls for this year’s Empty Bowls El Paso. Some participants
included: Mission Early College High School, a Brownie Troop from
Fort Bliss, Las Cruces Elementary, senior citizens, Loretto Middle
School Academy and several EPCC faculty, staff and students.
A Jazz band performed for this event. The purchase of a $10 ticket
gave buyers a choice of a decorated, hand-made bowl, filled with soup
that could later become a novelty for them to keep.
