LEWISBURG – You can feed yourself, and help feed others this Thursday at the annual Bucknell University Empty Bowls event. Empty Bowls is an event where you can enjoy a simple meal of a wide variety of soups and bread from 9 different Valley restaurants, and take home the hand crafted bowl you fill for a donation of $10.
Lynn Pierson, assistant director for community service at Bucknell University appeared on with “Drew and the Crew” on 94.1 KX this week talking about Empty Bowls and what makes it a unique event, “It is very unique. It draws in so many different parts of the community to support “Community Harvest,” our weekly hot meal program.”
Community Harvest in Milton is a program that offers a free hot meal every Monday evening and serves between 80 and 120 people. Pierson discusses the need for such programs, how the issue of hunger goes largely unnoticed, and why it’s a prominent issue in The Valley “It’s one of those issues you don’t immediately see in a person if you meet them, you don’t know if they’re hungry especially with children. In our area, there’s not a lot of public transportation, our sidewalks aren’t great so some folks don’t have the ability to get out to get food.”
Pierson elaborated on the problem facing those afflicted with hunger in The Valley “particularly in Northumberland, that’s considered a food desert. Which means most folks don’t have ready access to grocery stores, things like that. You think about our area, there’s one kind of grocery store in Milton, Weis Markets, it’s kind of on a busy street, so you may not want to walk there. If you think about Lewisburg, Weis and Walmart are on Route 15, if you don’t have a car, you don’t necessarily want to be travelling down that road on your own.”
Empty Bowls will be this Thursday, in the Walls Lounge in the Elaine Langone Center, on the Bucknell Univerity campus from 1130am – 2pm. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at Bucknell.edu, or at the event. (Christopher Elio)
