After more than a decade, Empty Bowls returns this week with its mission to raise awareness about hunger and raise funds to feed the hungry in the community.

The 11th annual Empty Bowls is set for 11 a.m. to 1 pm. Friday at First Presbyterian Church.

For $20, attendees will receive a handmade bowl from Dirty South Pottery, homemade vegetarian vegetable soup and bread made by My Father’s Garden.

Last year’s event served more than 300 people and raised $6,000, which was donated to Clark County Community services to aid in its mission of helping individuals and families in crisis in Clark County.

The Empty Bowls movement began nearly 30 years ago with John Hartom in North Carolina. Hartom was an art teacher who had his student craft ceramic bowls, invite the staff at his school for a soup lunch and seek donations.

The event has grown over the last three decades to every state in the U.S. and even some other countries.

Event organizer Ruthie Skinner said the local Empty Bowls started while Joe Molinaro and his wife, Mary, were living in Winchester. Joe was a ceramics professor at Eastern Kentucky University, and had established the Empty Bowls events in Richmond and Lexington.

“For years I had wanted to do some sort of fundraising event for the community,” Skinner said. “I hadn’t settled on what I wanted it to be. Joe suggested I start Empty Bowls in Winchester.

“Joe started the first one at EKU, and like all Empty Bowls events, it was a hit. At the time, Joe’s students made the first 200 bowls. That event eventually grew to about 1,400 bowls each year.”

Two of Joe’s students, Ashley and Carvel Norman, owners and artists at Dirty South Pottery, now continue the tradition of making the approximately 300 bowls for the local event.

While the Empty Bowls movement has grown to an international scale, the mission remains the same and the concept is still simple: raise awareness about hunger and raise money to help.

“It’s really simple, really organic and it works” Skinner said. “We want to keep it simple with the vegetable soup, water and bread.

“I think sometimes people don’t realize this is not a bowl sale. We never charge enough to actually pay for what it would cost you to buy a homemade ceramic bowl from a professional. We want people to think of others in need, especially this time of year when so many have so much, too much, and then so many others have nearly nothing.”

Skinner said some research shows about 25 percent of local children are food insecure.

“In a rich country, a rich county, we also have a lot of need,” she said. “It’s sad to think so many people go hungry in our community.”

The timing for the annual event is also strategic. “Right after Thanksgiving when we’ve all eaten too much and right before Christmas when we experience so much excess” is a good time to be reminded of others in need, Skinner said.

“A lot of people will be giving this time of year,” Skinner said. “Right after Christmas, that giving falls off drastically. But January and February are lean months (for the food bank at CCCS). We want these proceeds to be able to help fill that gap at the start of the year.”

The event takes on a life of its own each year, she said, with volunteers from all over the community helping to make it happen — from the folks at Dirty South Pottery who make the bowls, to the volunteers who prepare the soup, Molly Stotts who makes the bread, the JROTC Cadets who direct traffic, the church that offers the space for the event, to 4-H Leadership students who volunteer to serve food and clean bowls after the event and more.

“That’s why we call it Winchester Empty Bowls,” she said. “We don’t want people to think it’s limited to any certain person or group in our community. We want it to be everyone in the community pitching in and showing up for the event. We want them to feel like it’s part of who they are.”

Each bowl also goes home with a blessing from First Presbyterian Church Pastor Ryan Bradney, Skinner said.

“He will hand you back your bowl and tel you that there are many people who have empty bowls and in this instance you helped alleviate that hunger in Clark County,” she said. “He’ll remind you to take your bowl home and every time you see it or use it, remember the hungry and think of ways throughout the year you might be able to help alleviate hunger.”

Anyone interested in volunteering or preparing soup for the event can contact the church at fpcwinchesterky@gmail.com or call 744-3722.