National News

Second Harvest’s biggest annual fundraiser is almost here.Empty Bowls will be held on April 24 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the new headquarters on Shorefair Drive.Artists at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art have been busy preparing the bowls that will feed the community, made with a whole lot of love.”You see them carrying your bowl away and being so excited with what they got,” said Christine Timcheck, who helps create bowls for the Empty Bowls fundraiser.Timcheck couldn’t help but smile when she described seeing the pleasure on people’s faces, walking away with her bowls.”When I do a bowl for empty bowls, they don’t have to match,” Timcheck said. “Nobody expects to have blue or a certain color– so it’s kind of like– just a great time where you can do whatever you want.”Timcheck isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s one of the many masterminds behind the beautiful bowls that feed the community each and every year for Second Harvest’s empty bowls fundraiser.”This year, I made 100,” Timcheck said. “An even hundred.”And that’s just for this year.”The last few years, I’ve done pretty well nothing between January and March,” Timcheck said. “But make bowls for the empty bowls event.”Timcheck knows how food insecurity can impact a community, which is why she became involved.”Food insecurity was a subject dear to my heart,” she said. “Because I grew up in post-war Germany when people remember food rationing and 800 calories a day– stuff like that.”Second Harvest’s partnership with the Sawtooth School for Visual Art spans about 23 years.”We’re donating 500 bowls every year for this event,” said Sawtooth School’s Executive Director Lauren Davis.”It’s what makes the event so special,” added Second Harvest’s Carolyn Breese, “is people coming together to create these bowls that symbolize those facing food insecurity.”It’s a celebration of people helping people.”To support those facing food insecurity,” said Breese. “People who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”Every dollar raised helps provide seven meals. This year, Second Harvest hopes to raise more than $175,000.”I hope when folks support empty bowls and enjoy that meal, they think about the person who represents the meal they’re providing through their support,” said Davis. “But also, the artist that creates the bowl and their hands, and the love that went into that.”You can register and buy tickets to the Empty Bowls fundraiser by clicking here.You must register by April 17.