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“We’re just really hoping that is may be a banner year,” said Judy Dirksen, who with her husband Howard, founded the Fairfield Food Pantry 20 years ago. “It really does help us, especially going into the holidays.”
“It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Krystal Tipton, Butler County United Way vice president of community impact.
Not only does the event raise awareness to the issue of hunger, she said it allows the community to actually combat hunger in “supporting the programs that are out there helping individuals in communities.”
Carolyn Coley, who helped to start the Empty Bowl Project events around Butler County, said Empty Bowl events are about “educating people around hunger,” and around the county there are Boy and Girl Scouts, American Heritage Girls, schools and others participating. In Fairfield, Bengals Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz and Ed Hartman, Munoz’s comedic partner in the Furniture Fair commercials, will be at the event to meet attendees.
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Coley said these events are “amazing” because “it allows every person in our community to participate in helping feed the hungry in Butler County.”
Organizations that would receive support from the events, such as Transitional Living, the YWCA and St. Joseph Orphanage, have had bowl painting parties.
“These are people who are typically receiving services and they don’t get the opportunity to know what it feels like to give back,” said Coley. “And I think everybody should have that ability to know what that fees like. How empowering is that for the people in our community to get to feel that?”
Businesses are also involved. BarclayCard, one of Hamilton’s newest businesses, has purchased blank bowls and allows its employees to paint bowls in support of the events around the county, including in Fairfield this coming weekend.
The event is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Nov. 4 at the Fairfield Church of Christ, 745 Symmes Road. Attendees pay $10 and everything, including soup, bread and desserts, are donated.
For more information, or to purchase a presale ticket, visit www.ButlerCountyEmptyBowls.com.
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