Last week, on October 8th and 9th, Channel One Regional Food Bank held its 16th annual Empty Bowls event. To encourage safe, physical distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s event was held using a to-go model.
Jessica Sund, Director of Development and Communications at Channel One, explained, “We knew we still wanted to hold Empty Bowls this year to raise awareness of the increased demand for food. We also knew we needed to hold the event in a safe way.
Although the community is eager to see one another in-person again, switching to a to-go model made the most sense for our organization. Still, holding Empty Bowls using a to-go model for the first time held a lot of uncertainties. Our restaurant partners really helped us figure out the logistics of distributing over 800 bowls of soup in the span of two days.
We are so thankful and proud of our community members who have stepped up to the challenges of this year and who have continually helped us strengthen food access in our region.”
Through sponsorships and pre-orders, the to-go event raised over $68,000 to address food insecurity. This is a net increase of $6000 from the 2019 in-person event.
