Beautiful bowls to help end hunger in Petaluma

PPSC benefit to feature 1,000 hand-painted artworks|

Metaphorically, there is something about an empty bowl that is the perfect symbol for a fundraiser to end hunger. To Elece Hempel, Executive Director of Petaluma People Services Center, the metaphor is even more powerful when that single bowl becomes ten. And then 100.

And then 1,000.

Thus the name “1,000 Petaluma Bowls,” an inventive annual benefit in which local groups and individuals hand-paint hundreds of ceramic bowls, then donate them to be auctioned off at a grand party which includes, of course, a community meal of soup.

“This is our fourth year of doing the bowl benefit,” says Hempel, who’s been busy packing and unpacking box after box of bowls, either on their way to or on their way from the kiln, where each bowl is hand dipped in glaze and then fired to a beautiful, shiny finish. “Dipping the bowls is not easy,” she says with a laugh, adding, “I’ve developed muscles in my arms I didn’t know I had.”

Throughout the PPSC offices on South Petaluma Boulevard, there are countless stacks of those boxes, some with small, ramekin-sized bowls, others with larger, platter-sized bowls, all of them one-of-a-kind and ready to dazzle attendees at the 1,000 Petaluma Bowls party on Friday, Nov. 23, the day after Thanksgiving. For the most part, the bowls were painted during parties thrown by local organizations, who then gift the bowls to PPSC, which will auction them all off to the highest bidder at the big event.

“There were 40 people who showed up to paint bowls at the painting party thrown by the Woman’s Club,” she says. “For months now, that’s been happening all over Petaluma.”

According to Hempel, the innovative fundraiser was inspired by a similar one held annually in Seattle, Washington, where the bowls are designed by famous local artists.

“We’d love to have local artists donate bowls, too,” she says, “but there’s something so beautiful about knowing that this event, designed to feed people in our community, is made possible through the creativity of talents of people from all over this community, young and old, experienced artists and newcomers, whoever wants to try.”

Though the money raised from the sales of the bowls is a large part of the reason for the 1,000 Bowls benefit, Hempel says there’s an educational aspect that is equally important.

“At every painting party,” she says, “I come and tell people about the work of PPSC, and we have a conversation about hunger in our community, how it’s a very real issue for many people, and we talk about the programs we have, from our Meals on Wheels program to Petaluma Bounty.”

Those conversations, she says, are often major eye-openers.

“I tell them that it’s a very real thing that someone they know has missed a meal in the last day or so,” she says. “Food insecurity – not knowing when your next meal is going to come - is a huge problem in Petaluma. But a lot of people don’t know that. So ‘1,000 Bowls’ is about building awareness as much s it’s about raising a bunch of money.”

One thing she’s seen over the last four years is that the people who paint the bowls are often the highest bidders for the very bowls they created.

“People become very attached to then,” she says. “And many of them are breathtakingly beautiful. I’m very lucky because I get to see them when they come in, back from the kiln, before anyone else has.”

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.