Thanksgiving is a holiday centered around spending time with friends, family and eating tons of food. However, many Austinites go hungry on Thanksgiving and almost every other day of the year. The Empty Bowls Project is working to provide food to the hungry during this holiday season.

The Bowie art department, specifically the sculpture classes, donates handmade bowls to the Empty Bowls Project every year. The bowls are then bought at the event on November 19th and filled with soup. The money raised during the event goes to Kids Cafe, a program created under the Central Texas Food bank, and Meals for Kids under Meals on Wheels Central Texas.

“The most fun thing is going to the event because you get to see all the other bowls and all the people there, and usually the soup is amazing and the bowls are always different,” senior Madison Austin said.

The Bowie art department makes bowls for the program as a project grade. Then students have the option of donating them to the Empty Bowls Project.

“It’s a project we have to do, and then I give them the option if they want to do community service to donate their bowl,” art teacher Ryan Logan said. “If they really make a bowl that they just love and really want to keep the kids are allowed to keep them if they want, but we try to persuade them to help their community.”

The process can be difficult, as the bowls have to be food safe.

“The hardest part of making the bowls is making sure that they are smooth with no cracks because you don’t want to give someone food poisoning,” Austin said.

Students enjoy giving away their artwork for a good cause.

“It feels like you’re giving something that you’ve made, something personal, it feels good to make something yourself and then give it to somebody else,” senior Lilly Perez said. “Because sometimes I like to keep my stuff but this is different because we’re making it for somebody who needs it more than I do.”

According to the Austin Empty Bowls Project website, $92,000 was raised, 4,436 bowls were made, 4,272 hours were donated, and 215 gallons of soup was served in the last year.

“Going to the event and just seeing all the bowls and all the people waiting in line to get the bowls is amazing because you know that they are all going to contribute at least 20 dollars to help the food bank,” Austin said.

Teachers hope that this project helps students get plugged into community service.

“I like the kids getting a sense of giving back to the community, I think it’s more rewarding that I’ve got the kids doing something for somebody else besides them, or just their building, or their school or their family,” Logan said.