MORGANTOWN — There were full bellies and a full parking lot at the 13th Annual Empty Bowls Monongalia Luncheon at Mylan Park on Saturday afternoon.
The event, which features over 400 gallons of soup, started on a much smaller scale at the First Presbyterian Church in Morgantown and has continued to grow through the years.
Elaine McVay, president of the Board for Empty Bowls, said though tickets hadn’t been counted up yet on Saturday, there was a line out the door at 10:30 a.m. and steady traffic throughout the day.
“Lots of soup going out the door, lots of bowls, lots of good crowds and happy people,” she said.
Last year, Empty Bowls hosted about 1,800 people throughout the day, and McVay said that number was expected again this year.
In addition to helping themselves to a warm bowl of soup in a bowl provided with the ticket purchase, McVay said people could also buy tickets for a drawing and purchase extra bowls if they wished.
“We have over 500 volunteers that staff the event, and without them, we couldn’t do it,” she said.
The soups are heated at Towers, and McVay thanked WVU for its help with the program. WVU Dining heated the soup before it was transported over to Mylan Park. She also thanked Chico’s Bakery for donating 2,000 pepperoni rolls, a new addition to the tables.
“We’ve already made some comments about, OK, so how do we change this for next year just to make it better and make it different,” she said.
This year the luncheon had placemats for children to color and other kid-friendly activities for children.
Empty Bowls aims to increase awareness of food insecurity.
“It’s people who maybe have a good job, but because of circumstances out of their control don’t have enough money to pay all their bills and then don’t have enough food in the pantry when they get home,” she said.
McVay said there are about 16,000 people in Monongalia County who are food insecure. One in five children are eligible for reduced priced lunches at school.
“I’m new to West Virginia. I’ve been here just two years, and what I’ve found is that people are very generous and they want others to have the things that they need,” she said.
When she looks at the board and the volunteers giving their time to the luncheon, she said she sees people who want to make things better. And she keeps seeing the same volunteer faces.
“One of the women who was one of the first ones, she talked about soup being in Crock-pots back in the kitchen and they couldn’t get it out fast enough — so we’ve gone from that to restaurants to a serving line like this,” McVay said. “You can really tell that there’s this grassroots effort. People want to make a difference.”
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