Story, photos courtesy of Steve Nash – Special Contributor to BrownwoodNews.com
Brown County showed its generosity once again Thursday as Good Samaritan Ministries hosted its 17th Empty Bowls Project at the Brownwood Coliseum.
The coliseum was filled with diners who bought tickets for $15 to enjoy simple meals of soup, bread and dessert, as well as dozens of volunteers, Good Samaritan staff and sponsors who helped make the event a continuing success story.
Ninety percent of the proceeds raised from the Empty Bowls benefits Good Samaritan’s seven hunger ministries. The other 10 percent is being given to Food for the Hungry, an international relief organization.
Good Samaritans’ seven hunger programs are the Food Pantry Food for Thought, the Deer Project, the Pig Project, Homeless Boxes, Homebound Programs and the Mobile Food Pantry.
“Our theme this year was ‘Possibilities,’ — not that a lot of people care if Empty Bowls has a theme or not — but we spend so much time talking about empty bowls that we kind of did a play on that this year,” Good Samaritan Ministries director Leesa Stephens said. “We said an empty bowl is not necessarily a bad thing. It represents a possibility. It needs to be filled. How do you fill it? Do you fill it with soup? Do you fill it with other things? We began to think about how you fill a community event with faith, and with hope, and with love and with community spirit. So that was the idea this year behind the theme ‘Possibilities.’”
Stephens said Thursday’s event was a success. “Our goal was $70,000, and we had reached over 75 percent of that before (Thursday),” Stephens said. “I think we probably made our goal.
“We want to give a big shout-out to Kohler for making it possible by glazing the bowls. Also, we want to give a big shout-out to all of our volunteers and board members who helped us tirelessly. And of course, all the community people that painted bowls. And if someone still wants a bowl, they can come by Good Sam during our regular business hours, and we’ll be happy to give them a bowl.”
Stephens added, “We’re very, very excited, and just, again, thank the community for their support.”
