Making a difference one bowl at a time

Viewpoint’s annual Empty Bowls project, run by Upper School ceramics teacher Mrs. Nell Yates, has raised $880 for the West Valley Food Pantry.

Empty Bowls is an international event put on by many ceramic communities. Yates says she was inspired by the empty bowls events she was a part of  in high school, college and other ceramic communities, and saw an opportunity to bring this program to Viewpoint.

“Ideally, Empty Bowls will become a yearly project at Viewpoint,” Yates said. “I’d love to see the project 100% student organized and driven in the next few years. It’ll take a little organization and management to get them into the groove but, I think it would be a wonderful project for a group of service minded ceramic students to take on their own.”

The Empty Bowls event organized by Yates consisted of a community lunch of two types of soup (chicken noodle and vegan chili). Students were able to pre-purchase tickets, which got them a bowl of soup in a bowl made by Yates’ ceramics students. The soup was donated by parents in the VSSA, Viewpoint’s parent association, and all proceeds from the event went to the West Valley Food Pantry.

Mrs. Yates also hopes to integrate more service learning into her classroom curriculum, since she believes they are extremely important.

“It would be fun to see more service projects in the art department,” Yates wrote in an email. “[Middle school art teacher] Ms. Hicks is doing great work of beautifying the campus with her mural project in the Middle School and I’d love to install/craft some mosaic/ceramic art that could be integrated into the campus more. It’s fun to think about the possibilities!”