Empty Bowl Committee Member Bob Dietz is hosting an Empty Bowls Planning Meeting this Sunday, March 6 at 7pm at his house: 833 Maple Street in Santa Monica.

Second Annual Empty Bowls Santa Monica
A benefit for the Westside Food Bank
& the Bread and Roses Café

Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm

The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica (UU Santa Monica) will host for the second time a community event to raise funds and awareness for our ongoing fight against hunger in West LA.

Artists, hunger activists and caring people of all stripes will come together Saturday, March 7 to raise awareness of food insecurity and to provide funds for the Westside Food Bank and the  Bread and Roses Café. Chef D Brandon Walker of the Bread and Roses Café and Food Network Chopped Champion will be on hand to personally serve his own creations just for you. For a $20 donation you will share a simple meal of soup and bread and take home a beautiful handmade ceramic bowl of your choosing, to remind you of empty bowls right here in our community.

The Second Annual Empty Bowls Santa Monica will take place through the cooperation of local artists and businesses, the church, the Empty Bowls Project, the Westside Food Bank and the Bread and Roses Café.  Walker is Executive Chef at the Bread and Roses Café, which feeds the homeless five days a week, and works at the St. Joseph Center, where he runs a culinary training program that helps struggling men and women find a career in the food industry.

Santa Monica restaurants and merchants, including Panera, Santa Monica Seafood, Earth Wind and Flour, Fromin’s, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Albertsons, will provide soups, chilies, breads, and other items needed for the meal. Dozens of local potters, including volunteer event organizers Bettye Barclay and Ellen Levy, have handcrafted and donated over 250 unique soup bowls that are waiting to be taken home.

Thanks to this generous alliance, 100% of the $20 donations will benefit Westside Food Bank and the Bread and Roses Café. The Westside Food bank is a local nonprofit that serves over 70 different local agencies providing food to those in need. The Westside Food Bank finds that the need for food assistance in our area is up by more than 85% since the start of the Great Recession. As the food bank warehouse for the Westside since 1981, it annually distributes more than 4.5 million pounds of food. Allison Griffith, a volunteer from Westside Food Bank, will be present to talk about their work.

UU Santa Monica adult and youth volunteers will host and facilitate the event, strengthening the church’s long-standing support of the Westside Food Bank and ongoing commitment to the Bread and Roses Café. UU Santa Monica is once again proud to be part of the Empty Bowls Project, a grassroots effort to end hunger.

The public is welcome. Location: Forbes Hall, Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica, 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404 (map). For more information contact Nancy, assistant@uusm.org, 310-829-5436 ext. 102. Look for sign to free parking, which is available in the parking structure on 16^th Street just south of Arizona. Handicap parking is available behind the church.