Dear Ones, I would like to tell the story of my great adventure creating a fundraiser for hunger. It was a complete surprise, and SO much Fun!!!
It started last January when several of us traveled to Maui for the Honua Ola conference. We arrived early and were sightseeing along the coast road to Hana, when we stopped at a little chapel made of coral dedicated to Our Lady. We went in to sit a bit, and in meditation I began a dialogue with Mother Mary. After I thanked her for being the amazing, loving, compassionate world goddess that she is, she asked me to get more involved in easing the world’s suffering. I thought, What difference can I make, I’m only one person, the need is so great (like a black hole, actually!) She answered, “It doesn’t matter. It only matters that you participate. Do it for your own heart’s sake.”
During the conference, Chief Sonny Reyna, an Apache, conducted an amazing healing ceremony which I attended with interest. The core of his passionate message was: “The Alpha males have had their turn, and the world is in crisis. There are children and their mothers dying every day from starvation, when we live in a world of plenty. Alpha females step forward. It is your turn now. Please find a way to feed the children!” I found myself on my feet promising to do so.
In meditation the next day, I received more inner encouragement and glimpses of how I might begin. I saw myself making a few pottery bowls in my studio, selling them and giving the money to hunger. Maybe I could get some kids involved. When I expressed hesitancy, I heard “Don’t worry. We will be with you every step of the way.” I began to feel some excitement. Take away the fear of failure, and how would it not be interesting to see what could happen?
When I got back from Maui, I told the women in my pottery class about the trip and about this idea of making a few bowls for charity. My friend Judi said, “I’ve heard of something like that; my parent’s church does it as a fundraiser every year.” (I felt a bit deflated... oh, well, so it’s not original.) When I told another friend, a potter, she informed me there was a project like that happening right now at a nearby college. “It’s called an Empty Bowls Supper.” She suggested I look it up on the internet. I learned that the idea was started by a group of kids several years ago, and now is a national movement. It gets organized spontaneously and locally by potters groups, schools and colleges, or churches. The way it works is that potters make and donate bowls, you invite the public to a Supper, where they purchase the bowls (to keep) and enjoy a simple meal of bread and soup, then, 100 percent of the proceeds goes to hunger organizations of your choice. Brilliant!
I was excited by the synchronicity, sure I wanted to do it, not sure how, but willing to let things develop in an easy-going way -- just trusting life to lead me. For the next six months, I just kept telling people about this idea, and that I was excited about creating it locally. I made a few bowls over the summer, just trusting that more were in the pipe (it had been over thirty years since I had done any production pottery.) I bought 150 pounds of clay and some glazes. I ran into a local chef and asked her if she would be willing to get involved. She agreed and offered to make all the soup for us! Yes! I asked some kids if it sounded like a neat project, and they were immediately positive. I just kept taking little steps forward like this and thanking the angels.
By the end of the summer, my pottery group (four of us) agreed to spend the month of September making bowls and just see how far we could get. We heard that a community not far away was developing a similar project and I tracked down the organizer and picked her brain. How was she doing it? They had ten potters making 50 bowls each! She gave me lots of encouragment. When their event took place, Judi and I took a field trip to see how it all worked. It was hugely successful-- they sold 500 pots in the first hour! (We were very inspired and a little intimidated. We only had 30 bowls! ) But we decided to plunge in, we chose a date in November, a location, and began to plot publicity.
Judi clearly had organizing talent-- she ran the school’s annual Harvest Supper, their major fundraiser-- and so we began to strategize in earnest all the logistics of manpower, supplies, etc. It turns out the twelve turkeys from the Harvest Supper were lightly carved and tossed out every year, and leftover squash and potatoes also. She was thrilled to have the turkeys and extra food used, and our chef was willing to create soups with whatever we could come up with. Judi also acted as liason to the local school. The art teacher was enthusiastic and offered to have the kids decorate bowls. She needed 70 bowls! I gulped and promised the bowls in two weeks, and immediately shifted into high gear.
In the last month, the project took over every spare moment-- publicity, glazing, coordinating volunteers-- everyone wanted to help! But they were all exciting moments, even the ones I would not choose again, like sloshing turkey broth all over the back of my station wagon, or firing ten kiln loads in two weeks. Every time I unloaded the kiln, it was Christmas to see what the kids had done with the bowls we threw. I loved counting and recounting the finished bowls and seeing the numbers climb to 100, then 130. Finally, with the help of two more potters, we had 180 bowls, and the big day arrived!
On the 4th of November we opened the doors of the Pomfret Town Hall, with 8 huge pots of soup, 20 loaves of bread, the bowls all lined up-- looking gorgeous and waiting to be chosen-- and seating for about 60 people. People streamed in buying bowls, filling them and sitting down to eat at the long colorful tables. The hall was filled with groups of families and friends, coming and going, to live music donated by my friend Dave. In three hours we raised over $2200. (Subsequently we added another $300 by selling the left over bowls at the local churches). We were ecstatic!! The community loved it!!!
The headline of the local paper reported: “Empty Bowls, Full Hearts” and that truly says it all. It was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life to see it all come together, with such excitement for so many people, holding the faith that we could do it. And of course, the huge satisfaction of sending large donations to organizations directly involved in food aid. Many of us who have never experienced any real hunger in our lives carry a kind of hunger in our hearts to DO something to end the suffering in this world. This experience taught me that saying yes, and trusting my heart, would guide me to a way to connect my abundance, and compassion, to others’ need, and I am the one who is most grateful.

Jennifer Donaldson
Pomfret, Vermont
January, 2008