Colorful Empty Bowl event benefits valley food bank

MODESTO -- Second Harvest Food Bank is holding a fund-raiser at Modesto Centre Plaza to benefit its programs in Stanislaus County.

Those who attend the Feb. 8 event will take home a lasting memory of hunger in their communities: an empty bowl.

This will be Second Harvest's second Empty Bowl fund-raiser, a concept that started in Michigan in 1990 and has spread throughout the globe. Diners will get their choice of decorated bowls for their meal of stew, vegetables, salad and bread.

The bowls are being decorated by members of the Peer Recovery Art Project in Modesto. Other artwork created by project members will be on display and available for sale.

Second Harvest raised about $4,000 last year from its first Empty Bowl fund-raiser, according to Jessica Vaughan, community development coordinator for Manteca-based Second Harvest, which serves Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, as well as five Mother Lode counties. It helps more than 35,000 people each month with food in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.

Besides supplying food banks and pantries, Second Harvest's programs in Stanislaus County include Food 4 Thought, which provides groceries twice a month to schoolchildren in an after-school program, and Modesto Healthy Aging, in which seniors receive fresh produce once a month. The effort is a partnership with the Healthy Aging Association.

The fund-raiser is $35 and tickets must be purchased in advance. There are fewer than 100 left. The event starts at 6 p.m. with a no-host bar. Dinner and the program — including presentations on hunger — start at 7.

A table of 10 can be purchased for $300. People can sponsor a table for $500, which includes having the sponsor acknowledged at the event, as well as on Second Harvest's website and Facebook page.

Tickets are available by calling Vaughan at (209) 239-2091.