STEP to hold annual Empty Bowls event
Gathering intends to educate, involve community
March 8, 2016
At first glance, people may not notice the problem of hunger in St. Louis Park.
Through a bowl of soup and bread, the grassroots project Empty Bowls intends to educate and fight hunger within communities, according to Derek Reise, executive director of STEP.
Reise said the March 10 Empty Bowls represents the 15th year of the event in St. Louis Park.
“It is part of an international approach to educating people about hunger in their communities that goes back to the early 1990s,” Reise said. “The purpose of it is really to engage communities to understand and to take action to combat hunger right in their community.”
Sophomore Liz Acosta said she supports the Empty Bowls event and has previously volunteered many places, including Feed My Starving Children.
“I’ve supported some other people (that deal with hunger),” Acosta said. “I’ve volunteered with treehouse. Treehouse is a youth group. It’s where teens can come together — they have support groups where (people) share about their weeks.”
Because St. Louis Park offers most of STEP’s (St. Louis Park Emergency Program) support through donations, food drives and volunteering, Empty Bowls offers an opportunity to involve and educate the community on battling hunger in the city, according to Reise.
“We’ve existed for 40 years combatting food insecurity by providing food to people in St. Louis Park who need it. We rely on most of our support from the community. We do not get large amounts of government funding,” Reise said. “(Empty Bowls) is an opportunity for us to really engage the community in a strong way to educate the real need of combatting hunger in St. Louis Park.”
Junior Saamiya Amin said she believes Empty Bowls has importance for the community if it can help those who need food.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t eat every day, and if this can help them, like in some type of way — I think that’s actually really important,” Amin said.
Reise said along with the meal, the event includes a program discussing hunger in St. Louis Park and entertainment. He said the type of food served represents the challenges people face to obtain basic foods.
“The idea is to have a really simple meal that is accessible to everyone and is really easy to do, but also to underscore that even though food is plentiful in our community, sometimes it’s even a struggle for people to have the simplest foods,” Reise said.
Amin said Empty Bowls can help eliminate hunger in St. Louis Park through uniting the community and showing what people can do to fight the issue of hunger in their city.
“It will probably bring a lot of people together and show what they can do to help and some probably will help and others might need the help,” Amin said.
Reise said the event is relevant to students because youth represent around 44 percent of the 4,000 people STEP serves each year.
“Poverty disproportionately impacts young people and is present in our schools and this is really something that a lot of peers and students themselves are dealing with,” Reise said.
The Empty Bowls event takes place at 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. for lunch, and 4:30-7 p.m. for a dinner March 10 at Westwood Lutheran Church. Attendees will receive a locally made bowl to show gratitude and signify the need to fight hunger in the community. While the event is free for the public, donations are accepted.
