Sisters Anna Collums’ and Sheryl Collins’ pottery wheel at Deer Run Pottery off Oldtown Road has been spinning briskly the past month as they’ve churned out 250 hand-made, colorful bowls for a very good cause.
Calhoun County’s first Empty Bowls event is planned for Saturday, March 3 at the Multi-Purpose Building in Pittsboro to raise money for Our Daily Bread Food Pantry in Bruce.
“All shapes, sizes, and every color,” Anna Collums said describing the bowls they created for the event.
“We looked at other Empty Bowl events around, and that seemed to be the way they do it,” Sheryl Collins said. “We don’t have a signature glaze. We used the main colors we do anyway and just started working.”
They worked every day throughout January producing the pottery.
“You have to make them and then let them sit there for two weeks. Then you sand it. Then you fire it. Then you glaze it and fire it again,” Anna said.
Theresa Dye asked Anna and Sheryl if they would be willing to help with the event and they jumped at the chance.
“It’s overwhelming the amount of hunger here in Calhoun County,” Anna said.
“We hope this raises a lot of money, but also helps raise more awareness of the need out there,” Sheryl said.
The need is the 350 plus families that are served by the food pantry every week.
“We have people call every month saying they are out of food,” said Deborah Holmes, one of the leaders with the food pantry. “We’re always trying to get more food to put into the boxes.”
Every penny raised from the Empty Bowls event will go toward the purchase of more food, utilities – all operational costs for the food pantry.
“If we sell all 250 tickets we will raise $3,700,” Deborah said. “Oxford and Tupelo’s Empty Bowls events raise close to $100,000, but starting out as our first one $3,700 will be a lot of money for us.”
Deborah credited Theresa Dye, Bro. Lannis May from Bruce United Methodist Church and the rest of the food pantry’s board of directors for putting together this event.
“We’re an all-volunteer organization, so you can’t say thanks enough to all of those who give their time to help with this kind of project,” Deborah said. “The ladies at Deer Run donated all of the pottery they made themselves for this. We have lots of people in the community making a wide variety of soups to be included. We’re hoping this turns into a really big event for us.”
Tickets are $15 and there are only 250 available at Jeffery’s and Money Connection on the Bruce Square, or by contacting Theresa or Bro. Lannis. Each ticket gets you a handmade bowl from Deer Run, filled with soup, with a roll or cornbread, and drink.
“We also have several making desserts we will sell separately,” Deborah said.
The Multi-Purpose Building will open at 5 p.m. on March 3 to start serving. You can eat-in or carry-out.
“We’re really excited about this,” Deborah said. “It’s great for our food pantry but also great for our county to show us all coming together to support an important cause.”
