Empty Bowls Naples hosts monthly painting parties to help fund local food pantries

Cars lined the cramped roads along Corporation Boulevard, squeezed close to the hidden Meals of Hope office. The drivers weren’t donating food or gathering supplies — they were painting.

Brushes and paint bottles sat in the middle of the half-dozen long white foldable tables. About 70 people vied for table space, each with an unfinished bowl.

“I came because I love to paint and help,” Fort Myers resident Solemi Hernandez said. “It’s addicting.”

Empty Bowls Naples keeps a small office and warehouse in the building. Once part of Harry Chapin Food Bank, the group officially became a nonprofit last year.

“We want to make sure all of our money is going directly to those who need help,” Board President Betsy Dawson said. “We can now do that. We don’t have any paid staff.”

Feeding the hungry is the group’s mantra, and it found a unique way to fill the promise. It doesn’t collect and distribute food. Rather, volunteers individually shape, fire and paint thousands of bowls in preparation for a single event at Cambier Park in January.

“People pay $20 to go in and pick out any bowl they want,” board member Judi Nicholson said of the annual event. “We have soups made from local restaurants people can eat. And we have a silent auction.”

Events like the monthly public bowl painting on Sunday and Monday bring in dozens of residents, some with artistic know-how and others who are painting enthusiasts.

“We invite everyone to come,” Dawson said. “There are plenty of people to help coach and improve.”

A smaller number of pottery makers and volunteers regularly jump on a pottery wheel and make dozens of base bowls in a day with the help of Clay More Ceramics. However, nobody wants a plain brown bowl.

“By the end of this week, we’ll have 300 more bowls painted and ready,” volunteer Paula Burt said.

Flowers, polka dots and artistic lines adorned the bowls as people blow-dried paint in the back room. Many people would enjoy one of their bowls in the kitchen or on display, but some pieces rise above the rest.

“Every month we host a dinner for local professional artists with galleries or displays downtown,” Dawson said. “Their work is incredible. We use those in the silent auction.”

Out of the 4,000 total bowls, about 100 will enter into the silent auction.

“Here, come see this one,” Burt said.

Faded faces stood out from the lines and designs on a pitcher hidden in the back. An experienced artist put time into the piece, and it showed.

A tall porcelain vase with the most delicate flowers painted on the sides sat in a cardboard tube, waiting until the big show in January.

“We’ve still got time,” Burt said.

People interested in donating more than time can join the Friends of Empty Bowls Naples, where $50 gets you priority access into the main Cambier Park event in January. They’ll also receive exclusive bowls and mini-bowls.

Go to www.emptybowlsnaples.com for more information and times of upcoming events.