Melanie Jensen/Fourth Estate
Second-annual fundraising event trades handmade bowls for student advocacy
BY MELANIE JENSEN, STAFF WRITER
While the relaxing blend of pop and R&B music of Green and Gold Soul drifted through the Center for the Arts and members of the Mason community socialized, waitstaff wove among the guests to collect empty paper bowls to throw in the trash.
These bowls had once been full of potato leek, vegetarian enchilada and chicken tortilla soup. After guests enjoyed their soup, desserts and bread, they left with a full belly and a handcrafted ceramic bowl to remind them of the students who face empty bowls and food insecurity every day.
Empty Bowls, a national grassroots initiative, pairs donated pottery from local artists’ with fundraising for hunger-relief charities. LeRoy Gruebbs, the potter behind the organization’s website, described the organization as a vehicle for a global issue to be addressed at a local level. “We are changing the world one person at a time, one bowl at a time,” he said.
Wednesday, April 30, marked the second Empty Bowls event on Mason’s Fairfax campus, organized by experienced potters Maggie Daniels, professor of Tourism and Events Management, and Lauren Long, executive director of Student Involvement.. The event raised $11,300 for hungry students, surpassing last year’s $10,442.
“It’s just a lovely evening to raise money, support and awareness of the students we have that need help on campus so that they can continue to thrive,” Long said. To ensure every dollar counted, she and Daniels structured the night as a zero-cost event, so that all proceeds from online donations, ticket sales, table sponsors and silent auction bids go directly to the Mason Student Food and Housing Insecurity Fund.
Managed by the Student Support and Advocacy Center (SSAC), the fund pays for food and hygiene products for Mason’s on-campus food pantry program Patriot Pantry.
“We work to encourage food security, reduce the stigma surrounding food insecurity and promote student success by alleviating concerns that prevent students from fully engaging in their collegiate experience,” said Dwayne Hamilton Jr., the assistant director for Basic Needs Services within the SSAC. “The incredible generosity of the Empty Bowls attendees last year contributed to the distribution of over 14,000 pounds of items to 650 students in need in the last academic year.”
In the 2023-2024 school year, 23,212 pounds of food and hygiene products were distributed to 818 students on campus, according to a booklet provided to guests at the Empty Bowls event. It stated that since 2020, Patriot Pantry had seen a 243% increase in students using the pantry.
According to Hamilton, SSAC is in the early stages of fundraising for and constructing a new and improved Patriot Pantry on campus to even better serve the rising number of Mason students suffering from food insecurity.
More than 100 people attended Empty Bowls, each choosing one of over 300 handmade ceramics donated by artists from Manassas Clay, Reston Community Center Ceramics, TealNest Pottery, Workhouse Arts Center and a number of other local artists. Both Daniels and Long also made and donated bowls for the event.
Melanie Jensen/Fourth Estate
Event partners—including the Center for the Arts and Mason Dining provider Sodexo—donated the event space, staff, food and refreshments. Green and Gold Soul, a Mason student-led band, and Bronwyn Weikert, a master’s student who sings with the Mason choral department, performed for free throughout the evening.
“Sodexo has been on campus for the last 38 years, and every single semester, we try to understand our students more and more and figure out how to better support them,” said Sophie Nelson, marketing and sustainability manager for Mason Dining. Sodexo donates 2,000 meal swipes every year to Patriot Pantry through their Stop Hunger Foundation, giving food-insecure students the chance to eat, study and socialize in dining halls, according to Nelson.
Sodexo also runs a round-up campaign across retail dining locations on campus, giving students, faculty and visitors an opportunity to donate to Patriot Pantry when they grab lunch in the Johnson Center or the Student Hub.
Melanie Jensen/Fourth Estate
Silent-auction items ranged from a custom T-shirt blanket crafted by Hope Miller, associate director of Student Involvement, to four tickets to a performance of Disney on Ice at EagleBank Arena among more than 15 lots up for bid.
To close out the evening’s speeches, Daniels quoted John F. Kennedy, “‘The war against hunger is truly a war of liberation.’ Your support has liberated Mason students to learn, to dream and to achieve.”
Students seeking assistance can log in to the SSAC with Mason credentials, complete a brief needs form, and be enrolled in at least one credit hour. No financial information is required.
