Empty Bowls This Thursday at Oxford Conference Center

The annual Empty Bowls event has been helping to put food on the plates of the less fortunate in Lafayette County by providing hot, homemade soup in hand-crafted ceramic bowls for the past 17 years.

This year’s Empty Bowls will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday at the Oxford Conference Center.

Almost 30 restaurants and individuals are participating in this year’s event, providing soup, stews and gumbos, including St. Leo’s vegetable stew, Boure’s cheeseburger soup and Proud Larry’s crawfish corn chowder.

The soups will be served in bowls created by the Ole Miss Mud Daubers ceramics club and other area artists and pottery makers.

There are about 1,500 bowls made for this year’s event.

“The bowls serve as a reminder of the meal’s purpose,” said organizer Barbara Smith, “that someone’s bowl is always empty.”

For $20, a participant will receive the soup, a bowl of their choice, water and bread.

In past years, the event has raised up to $15,000 for The Pantry — a nonprofit organization that began in 1982 to provide food on a weekly basis to any resident of Oxford or Lafayette County in need of assistance.

The soup can be purchased and eaten at the church or taken “to go.”

The funds from the event will help The Pantry purchase food to supplement what they get from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Empty Bowls began in 1990 when a high school art teacher in Michigan conceived of the idea as a way for his students to raise money for a food drive.

** Not on list: Venice Kitchen will have traditional chicken soup