Art with Purpose: MGA Students Craft Bowls for Empty Bowls Fundraiser

Author: Sheron Smith
Posted: Monday, August 25, 2025 12:00 AM
Categories: Faculty/Staff | School of Arts and Letters | Events- Public | Students | Pressroom

Macon, GA

MGA students working on the ceramic bowls that will be used during the Empty Bowls fundraiser on the Macon Campus.

Turning clay into compassion, Middle Georgia State University students created hundreds of ceramic bowls that are now set to help fight hunger across the region.

As part of a service-learning project led by Kimberly Riner, assistant professor of arts-ceramics 3D, a dozen or so Middle Georgia State (MGA) students on the Cochran and Macon campuses created about 300 ceramic bowls for the upcoming Empty Bowls luncheon to take place at the School of Arts & Letters on the Macon Campus. The luncheon, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, September 23, is a fundraiser for the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank.

“We want students to see early in their college careers that the skills they’re developing can serve others,” Riner said. “Empty Bowls gives our class real‑world purpose, which is learning to design and craft bowls, then sharing them to support neighbors facing food insecurity.”

Empty Bowls fundraisers generally work like this: Volunteers create handmade bowls, usually ceramic but sometimes using other materials. Guests buy tickets to the fundraiser and, using the bowls, dine on a simple meal, which is usually soup and bread to highlight the contrast between abundance and scarcity. The guests take home their purchased bowls, which serve as a reminder of the many empty bowls throughout the world. The proceeds benefit organizations that supply food to people in need, making the event both an artistic and community-focused effort.

“Empty Bowls is a model of what service‑learning can be at MGA,” said Dr. Billy Wooten, dean of the School of Arts & Letters, who proposed the service-learning idea to Riner last spring and made the bowl-making part of the school’s annual Arts Festival. Now the project is about to pay off for the food bank.

“We’re grateful to the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank for partnering with our students and to everyone who shaped, glazed, and fired bowls to make this inaugural event possible,” Wooten said.

Middle Georgia Community Food Bank serves 24 counties in the central Georgia region. The organization estimates that about 15 percent of the population in the service area cannot afford to buy all the food they and their families need. 

The Empty Bowls luncheon is open to the public. For more information and to purchase tickets, see https://mgcfb.networkforgood.com/events/84399-inaugural-middle-georgia-community-food-bank-empty-bowls-luncheon.