Empty Bowl fundraiser to help other students

Close to 200 students, teachers, administrators and members of the community broke bread over seven different kinds of soup during Springfield High School’s eighth annual Empty Bowl supper.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20151112/NEWS02/151119869

http://www.vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/RH/20151112/NEWS02/151119869 Photo by Le n emmry Meredith Pelton, a Springfield High School art teacher, sits among tables holding ceramic bowls made by students for the eighth annual Springfield High School Empty Bowl supper. Published November 12, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Empty Bowl fundraiser to help other students By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Students gave back to fellow students Tuesday night over a bowl of soup. Close to 200 students, teachers, administrators and members of the community broke bread over seven different kinds of soup during Springfield High School’s eighth annual Empty Bowl supper. This year, according to art teacher Anne Katomski, the students were raising money to help fellow students who often go hungry on the weekends. Katomski said that the previous benefit suppers had benefited the Springfield Art and Historical Society. But she said this year Principal Bob Thibault had suggested that the students put their efforts into helping their fellow students, Katomski said. Earlier this year, the school initiated the Backpack Program, where students who are facing a hungry weekend take some food to tide them over the weekend. The backpacks include basic, nonperishable food items such as peanut butter, tuna fish, macaroni and cheese, pasta and sauce, bread, crackers and snack bars. Currently, fewer than a dozen students get the backpacks every Friday, Katomski and school nurse Diane Daniels said. “There probably is more. Kids are really hesitant to ask,” said Daniels. Students have been referred by the school’s social worker or guidance counselors, or even their friends, she said. “We have a lot of working poor,” said Katomski. “Single parents who work, but make too much to qualify for food assistance. Feeding teenagers is expensive, she said. “Springfield is a conscious community of what others need here,” she said, noting that needy students are often aided by fellow students and their families. “It’s good for the students to think of someone else besides themselves,” she added. According to Katomski and Daniels, about half of the students at Springfield High School are eligible for free lunch and breakfast at the school, and struggling single parents often can’t afford to feed their children. Some parents leave their children to fend for themselves on the weekend, they said. In addition to the Backpack Project, money will go to food programs at the Springfield Family Center, they said. The soup supper includes food made by the culinary arts students and their instructors at the River Valley Technical Center, which is connected to Springfield High School. Other classes at the high school sold other food items to help raise funds for other activities: one class sold bottled water and drinks, another held a bake sale. Katomski and fellow art teacher Meredith Pelton worked with Andover potter Susan Leader, who worked with the students on the basics of making bowls. Supper-goers had the option of buying a student-created bowl to have their soup in, or buy a bowl to take home. Among the seven kinds of soup were corn chowder with bacon, cream of butternut squash, beef and barley mushroom, tomato vegetarian, cream of broccoli with cheese, as well as macaroni and cheese, pasta salad and sesame noodles with snow peas. Students from River Valley Tech Center were the servers, and they said that the corn chowder with bacon was the favorite, along with the mac and cheese, which was made with Vermont cheddar, said Donna Vargas, one of the chef/instructors at the school. Many area farms and food businesses donate food for the supper, Vargas and Katomski said, with King Arthur Flour donating rolls and bread and Vermont Fresh Foods Natural Pasta providing the pasta salad. The soup supper was founded by retired Springfield High School art teacher Lisa Murray, Katomski said, and the supper has grown over the years with students helping on every aspect of the meal, from greeting the public, taking tickets, making and selling bowls, to making table decorations. There was even a musical concert after all the soup, including the high school’s wind ensemble, chorus and madrigal singers.