BELLOWS FALLS — Tickets are on sale for the 20th annual Empty Bowl dinner and auctions Sunday, Nov. 5, at Alyson's Orchard in Walpole, N.H., to benefit the food programs of Our Place Drop-in Center.
The event gets underway at 5 p.m. and includes a soup supper featuring signature soups from local restaurants and silent and live auctions featuring items and services donated by local businesses and individuals.
Tickets are $35 each and are on sale at Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls, Galloway Real Estate in Walpole, or at Our Place.
With the theme of “Gather and Share,” the event begins with an auction preview and social hour. A highlight of the event is each attendee's selection of one of the handmade bowls to take home as a reminder of those who struggle to put food on the family table.
Proceeds of the dinner go toward supporting the food programs of Our Place, which include a food pantry, a daily breakfast and lunch, and nutrition education.
“This is our most important fundraiser of the year,” said OP director Lisa Pitcher. “We are very grateful for the donations of bowls, auction items, and food that make it possible.”
Soups, bread, and salad for the supper are donated by area restaurants and schools and are served by students from New England Kurn Hattin Homes. Students from Vermont Academy help with the set up, and the Fall Mountain Interact Club helps clean up.
Items that have been gathered for the live auction so far include two passes for zip line adventures at Lake Placid, N.Y., tour of a local Victorian mansion, a gourmet dinner for six, 150 gallons of heating fuel, a piece of handcrafted wood furniture, stays at local inns, three nights at a 100-year-old cabin up in the hills, gift baskets, a quilted wall hanging and an hour of professional audio lab service.
The oldest such event in the area, the Our Place Empty Bowl is part of an international effort that began in 1990 to raise money for food programs. What started as a local effort in a Michigan high school has grown into a worldwide program that has raised more than a million dollars to help fight hunger.