Rancho Santa Fe students host Empty Bowls dinner to alleviate hunger

R. Roger Rowe School will hold its Empty Bowls dinner and fundraiser from 6-7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Performing Arts Center. The event will feature beautiful ceramic bowls crafted by students and a simple soup dinner.

A $25 ticket will include one of the student-created bowls and dinner and dessert from local restaurants, with all proceeds going to the San Diego Food Bank. The event is part of the school’s Kind to the Core Week, which celebrates the school’s student community service program.

Local businesses participating include Ki’s Restaurant donating the soup, Caffe Positano donating coffee and Pacific Coast Grill donating the bread pudding dessert.

Art teacher Marika Fagan is excited to bring the nationwide project of Empty Bowls to the school and the community. She believes they are the first middle school in the county to take on the project.

“It shows how art can impact the world in a real, positive way,” Fagan said. “The cool thing to me is that the students know when they’re making these bowls that there’s no ownership. They’re very aware that the bowls are not theirs to take home, they’re really making a project to give back to people who are less fortunate than they are.”

Locally, their contribution will help the more than 462,000 people in San Diego who live at the poverty level and go to bed hungry every night.

Four middle school art classes took part in the project, completing about 100 bowls. Last week, classes were working on glazing the bowls and making tissue-paper flowers for centerpieces for the dinner.

Rowe students took part in Empty Bowls last year, but the May 13 dinner was the same day the Bernardo Fire threatened Rancho Santa Fe, forcing cancellation. Fortunately, enough families had bought tickets and were able to pick up their bowls that the event still raised $2,750.

Fagan hopes this year will be a similar success. For tickets, e-mail mfagan@rsf.k12.ca.us or call 858-770-2970, ext. 405.