Thursday night held multiple milestones for Columbia Gorge Food Bank, as they hosted a benefit soup dinner at Bargeway in The Dalles. The event was not only the first “Empty Bowls” in The Dalles, but was also CGFB’s first ever fundraising event.
Empty Bowls is an international project designed to fight hunger that was created in 1990 by Lisa Blackburn and art teacher John Hartom. Blackburn and Hartom joined a charity drive in their Michigan community and Hartom had the idea to give artists and art students a way to make a personal difference. He had his art students make ceramic bowls which were then used to serve soup during a fundraising meal. Guests who donated to the meal got to keep the bowls after the event.
As time has gone on, Empty Bowls has spread across the world, with different communities hosting the event at different times of the year. Each community also adapts the idea to what fits them. In The Dalles, nearly 250 handmade bowls were donated by local potters and student artists across the state.
Those who attended not only got a handmade bowl to take home with them, but they also had a choice of four soups: Chicken and dumpling, Hungarian mushroom, vegetarian vegetable and beer cheese made from scratch by the Bargeway Pub. There were also breads donated by Petite Provance, White Salmon Baking Co. , and Ladle with dinner as well as desserts from Knotty Buns and Apple Valley at the end of the night.
The event will be an annual one, according to CGFB Community Philanthropy Manager Silvan Shawe, who spoke at the event.
“All donations tonight go to support our local work here in the Gorge,” Shawe said. “Thank you so much for your support. Thank you so much for being here and being a part of this work. We’re just getting started and we hope to see you next year.”
In conjunction with the event, there was also an online auction featuring more than 50 handmade ceramic works, local beer and wine, and other handcrafted items all donated to help support fighting hunger in the Gorge. The auction went live on Monday, Oct. 3, and went for a week.
According to Shawe, Empty Bowls raised $14,000 to go toward food security in the Gorge.
CGFB Manager Sharon Thornberry, who is set to retire in the spring, also spoke at the event, sharing some of the story of what inspired her to get into foodbanking in the first place.
Thornberry said she was living with her two children in Texas in 1978, her husband away working on an oil rig, when they were flooded out of their house. Without any food, Thornberry went to her neighbor and asked what she could do to get some food for herself and her children.
At the time, in order to get food stamps you had to go to the post office and it could take up to a week. Though Thornberry’s neighbor took her to apply, it was going to take too long. Luckily, the people there had a solution.
“They said, ‘Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, we’ve got someplace to give you food,’” Thornberry said. “It was kind of a campus, a social service campus. So they walked me to another building, and through the window, I could see shelves and shelves of food, but nobody knew where the key was.”
Because no one knew where the key was, they told Thornberry she could come back later, even though she didn’t have a car or gas. She was left without the help she needed.
“When I got involved in food banking in the 1980s, I swore to myself that no one ever would ever have to look through the window and not get food,” Thornberry said.
Thornberry has worked hard to make this true in the Gorge. She said, having spent 20 years working in food security around Oregon, especially Eastern Oregon, she found that the Columbia Gorge was one of the communities most in need of new infrastructure. With the Oregon Food Bank, she helped open CGFB in 2017.
“It took us 18 months to find a warehouse, and we got a 2,000 square foot warehouse, which is where we’re working: In an 800 square foot office,” she said. “We were moving about a million pounds of food a year and then the pandemic, and we started to move whatever food we could get … Now we’re moving about 2 million pounds of food a year, so we’ve really been able to help a lot of people.”
CGFB is currently working on renovating a new, 11,000 square foot facility that they expect to be done in December. It will be not just a food bank, but a Community Food Center that will host other agencies, including Windy River Gleaners and Community Backpack Program, which provides weekend meals for kids in The Dalles.
According to Shawe, last year, the Backpack Program averaged 125-150 backpacks a week, but that number has increased significantly.
“We got an order on Wednesday for enough food to provide 305 bags for students, and the need is only increasing,” Shawe said. “When I look out at everyone here, I think of all the people who contribute their time and their energy and their resources to helping make our community more equitable, more sustainable, and to take care of each other. That’s what community is.”
For more information on Columbia Gorge Food Bank, to volunteer, get involved with Empty Bowls or donate to help fight hunger in the Gorge, visit www.columbiagorgefoodbank.org.
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