With your support, Empty Bowls 2025 raised over $32,000 for the Community Action Center of Northfield. Thank you to all who stopped by, bought a bowl, and enjoyed some soup with neighbors and the campus community!
Empty Bowls is an annual event that raises money for the local food shelf through a shared meal of community-donated soup served in handmade bowls. Everyone is welcome!
How can I participate?
- Come to the Bald Spot (or Great Hall in case of heavy rain,) 2026 date TBD.
- Choose a beautiful bowl made collaboratively by Carleton Ceramics student work staff and those enrolled in Professor Kelly Connole’s ARTS 230 Throwing classes. There are hundreds of bowls to choose from!
- Fill your bowl with soup and enjoy a simple meal while getting to know your community! All soup and bread is donated by generous students, faculty, staff, local bakeries, Bon Appetit, and friends.
- Keep the bowl as a source of inspiration to help fill the empty bowls and stomachs in the world!
You can also participate by: making soup, helping to get the word out about the event, and by donating as much as you are able!
Empty Bowls 20th Anniversary
History of Empty Bowls
Timeline
- 2005 – The first Empty Bowls was put on by Professor Kelly Connole and studio art major Dustin Yager ‘06. A small event held at Spring Concert, there was no soup and only about 70 bowls. ($741 raised)
- 2006 – The event served donated soup, Brick Oven Bakery bread, and water, apples, and flatware donated by Bon Appetit (then Sodexo): all lasting traditions that continue to this day. Bowls were made by student workers and those enrolled in advanced ceramics. ($3000)
- 2007 – The Empty Bowls event expanded with Interest Houses earnestly providing soup. Ceramics students traveled to the Northfield CAC Food Shelf for the first time. ($4900)
- 2008 – Visiting Professor and now local ceramicist Juliane Shibata ‘01 directed Empty Bowls during Connole’s sabbatical ($5425)
- 2009 – Carleton Ceramics, with the help of local potters, created 490 bowls, making this event the first to surpass 400! ($5605)
- 2010 – Studio art major Emma Bentley ’10 designed the first ever Carleton Empty Bowls t-shirt. In its 6th year, Empty Bowls solidified its role as a Carleton tradition with alums, current students, faculty, staff, and the Northfield community having a commitment to the event. ( $6600)
- 2011 – Professor Connole worked with students to find a more sustainable model for the Empty Bowls project at Carleton. Bowl production became a year-long process. ($5754)
- 2012 – Kelly Scheuerman, former Assistant Director of the ACT Office (now part of CCCE) coordinated soup making and food donations: CCCE’s ongoing contribution. ($6454)
- 2013 – Professor Connole received an anonymous thank you note stating “the true value of the bowls is something that the people who produce and use them may never see. It is the food that reaches the mouths of families in our community.” ($5913)
- 2014 – The 10th Empty Bowls came and went quietly without acknowledgement of the milestone. The project ($6365)
- 2015 – To properly celebrate the decennial, Bon Appetit served dessert for EB’s 10th (belated) birthday with record donations. ($8387)
- 2016 – On a very rainy day, Juliane Shibata ‘01 returned to help orchestrate Empty Bowls in Great Hall. ($5223)
- 2017 – Professor Connole offers ARTS 230, an intermediate throwing class with the Empty Bowls project embedded within the Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) curriculum. ($7175)
- 2018 – A partnership with Cannon River Clay Tour artists was established to broaden the bowl making process. The Empty Bowls event became the official convo lunch following an address by Ladonna Redmond (The Campaign for Food Justice Now). In efforts to make the event more inclusive, 50 bowls were offered to students for whom the $20 suggested donation felt out of reach. The Friends of Empty Bowls initiative was established in partnership with OIL and CCCE. ($8391)
- 2019 – The 15th Anniversary! Carleton’s Empty Bowls project was recognized at NCECA, the national clay conference held that March in Minnesota, for its unique collaborative approach to bowl making. ($11,921)
- 2020 – The global COVID-19 pandemic shifted all spring classes to online. A virtual Empty Bowls event encouraged past participants to use their empty bowls and make contributions to their local food shelves. ($4903 raised for the Northfield Food shelf and an unknown amount to other organizations)
- 2021 – The Empty Bowls project persevered, but without soup, as the pandemic continued to impact social gatherings. ($6195)
- 2022 – The community meal component returned with many members of the community on campus for the first time in 3 years! Students in two sections of ARTS 230 created a whopping 600 bowls! ($11,104)
- 2023 – In a triumphant post-pandemic revival, more Carleton students than ever were able to experience the Empty Bowls project in its entirety. With ongoing support from OIL and CCCE, Friends of Empty Bowls provided expanded access with more than 650 people sharing the community meal. ($13,564)
- 2024 – Read more about the 2024 event.
Carleton Empty Bowls has raised over $150,000 for the Northfield Food Shelf.
Ceramics Process
Click each image to learn more about the process of creating hundreds of bowls for the event!
Sponsors and Partners
Thank you to Center for Community and Civic Engagement, Bon Appétit, Brick Oven Bakery, Bread People, and the Department of Art and Art History for the ongoing support of the Empty Bowls Project!
All proceeds benefit the Northfield Community Action Center Food Shelf. Learn more about healthy food access.
Contact Fay Dacey in the CCCE office if you are interested in making soup!
