The popular community event will be held Friday, Feb. 25, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at St. Mark’s Parish Hall, 608 W. Main St., Richmond. For a $10 donation, participants will receive a handmade pottery bowl, homemade soup, bread and drink. The event promises to raise more than $8,000, to be divided among four charitable organizations that fight local hunger: the Food Bank of the Kentucky River Foothills Development Council, Home Meals Delivery, Red Cross and the Salvation Army of Madison County.

Dozens of local and Lexington-based businesses, more than 20 area churches, St. Mark School and other schools in the area and statewide, and Eastern faculty, staff and students have united to donate their various talents and resources to ensure the event’s success.

EKU art students will make most of the bowls, joined by local schools and professional potters.

“Many organizations and individuals have worked together on ‘Empty Bowls,’” said EKU President Joanne Glasser, who’ll be among community volunteers helping to serve the meal. “That community spirit is what makes this event such a tremendous success.” Glasser will be joined by city officials, area ministers and others.

In 1997, Richmond became the first city in central Kentucky to organize an “Empty Bowls” project. When Joe Molinaro, an EKU art professor, learned of similar events elsewhere, he began asking local churches for assistance. The request was met with immediate enthusiasm and support, and the event has grown every year since.

Julie Bucknam, who teaches art education at EKU, has been instrumental in involving school children locally and statewide in making bowls.