Sponsored by

Empty Bowls. Full Hearts.
Over $67,000 Donated Since 1998.

Each year, all K-12 students in Linn County are invited to create contributions for one of the MAF’s most beloved programs, the Empty Bowls Project, presented by Veridian Credit Union.



Students from twenty-four schools are working to create ceramic bowls, to be donated and then sold at the Marion Arts Festival, raising funds to benefit local food banks. Area artists also contribute ceramic bowls, along with wood bowls masterfully crafted by the American Association of Wood Turners, Corridor Chapter.



Most bowls carry a $5 price tag. Over the program's thirteen-year history, more than $67,000 has been donated by the festival to area hunger relief agencies, each year helping to serve over eight thousand persons needing assistance.



Approximately 500 area students will become involved by making bowls, with some also volunteering on festival day. This hands-on approach has a lasting effect on those students who participate, while also helping to raise hunger awareness among festival attendees.



Further, students know the satisfaction of producing artistic items that will be very much in demand. Hundreds of festival attendees line up early to avoid the heartache of going away bowl-less, proving the Empty Bowls Project as being one of our most popular offerings.



The 2012 Empty Bowls sale is being planned and managed by a team of Marion High School Art Club students, with the assistance of teachers Barb Shultz and Jen Thilges. If you are an educator whose classroom would like to donate bowls to the 2012 festival, please contact us for information.




Who Benefits?

Funds raised through the festival-day sale of student-made bowls benefit local food banks. Proceeds from the 2012 project will help support the Churches of Marion Food Pantry, the Linn Community Food Bank and Mission of Hope.



Our thanks to Veridian Credit Union, whose generous support allows us to reimburse the supply budgets of the teachers whose students used classroom materials - such as clay and glaze - to create the donated bowls.