Soup ladled for donors

Sunday, as the convention center opens its doors, 600 people will race forward to snatch up whatever hand-sculpted bowl catches their eye. But in this case, the glaze or colorant is not the most important feature: These people want to put a stop to hunger.\nThe Soup Bowl Benefit has moved out of the church basement where it began 12 years ago and into the convention center. Press Relations Representative Beth Lodge-Rigal said they expect to raise almost $50,000 for Hoosier Hills Food Bank, a local organization that makes food donations available to more than 80 other nonprofit agencies.\n"It was always the intention that they would raise money for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank," said Lodge-Rigal, who has been on the Soup Bowl committee for eight years. "They just decided that as the mothership of food distribution, it would be the most direct way of serving the most people."\nThe Soup Bowl Benefit brings together more than 30 artisans contributing hundreds of handmade pottery bowls, more than 20 local restaurants providing their soups, and a few local bakers donating bread. For $20, participants are able to select their favorite ceramic bowl and spoon it full of the soup of their choice.\nThis benefit is one part of a growing group of events known as the Empty Bowls Project, a worldwide grassroots effort to bring communities together to fight hunger.\nSome statistics suggest hunger is a problem in this \ncommunity. According to the 2003 Census, more than 13,000 people live in poverty in Monroe County. This figure more than tripled the next highest county, Lawrence, with just more than 4,000 impoverished residents.\nThe Hoosier Hills Food Bank is the largest organization fighting against poverty in Monroe and surrounding counties. The agency receives food from grocery stores, food distributors, food service establishments and restaurants and then provides it for more than 20,000 people each month.\n"We're food rescuers that bring back food, sort through it and make it available for agencies that feed people," Assistant Director Dan Taylor said.\nThe Community Kitchen is one of the organizations that receives supplies from the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. It serves one free meal a day to anyone who enters and provides meals for after-school programs.\nOpen for 23 years, the Community Kitchen now serves more than 400 meals a day. Most of these meals go to children and senior citizens because they are most vulnerable to the detriments of hunger, said Assistant Director Tim Clougher.\nClougher said that it's difficult to grasp the hunger situation in Bloomington.\n"It's really easy to be on campus and not be aware that we have the same problems as urban areas," Clougher said. "Somewhat of a shocking population of people are homeless. A lot of people are in the working poor and pick up their meals on the way home from work."\nThe Community Kitchen has 60 volunteers a week, most of whom are IU students. Clougher said that it is good for them to see the kitchen's patrons to break down the stereotype of what being homeless is all about.\n"It doesn't take much for people to run out of money," he said. "The idea is to break the stigma of people using soup kitchens. A lot of people need support, sometimes just to get through the end of the month"