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Yad Ezra and Food Bank of Oakland County team up to promote hunger awareness.

BEN FALIK

Special to the Jewish News

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ne-of-a-kind bowls of all colors, shapes and
sizes covered 10 tables in the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield Jan.
13. Over the course of the afternoon, they
were snatched up, one by one, for the benefit of Yad
Ezra and the Food Bank of Oakland County.
For $18, each participant or family in the Empty
Bowls program received a number at the door that
matched up with a bowl somewhere in the room.
Among the possibilities were paper mache, painted
glass, plastic and ceramic bowls, some donated by Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan Detroit and Detroit Public
Schools students, others courtesy of professional potter
Lynn Nevins.
"The main thrust of the program is to create aware-
ness of hunger," said Micki Grossman of Farmington
Hills, who helped organize the second annual program.
"The money that comes from the event is important,
but our main priority is calling everyone's attention to

their Plant a Row for the Hungry project.
Some of the younger attendees busied themselves in a
corner of the room with stories about growing and
preparing food.
"My favorite food is carrots," said Evan Grossman-
Michigan's only kosher food pantry.
Lempert,
4, of West Bloomfield, looking up from
Participants left with their strictly decorative bowls,
"Growing
Vegetable Soup," a book he and his brother
but first enjoyed mushroom barley soup and sourdough
were
perusing.
2,
Eric,
bread donated by Matt Prentice, whose Milk and
In
the
final
half hour of the Empty Bowls open
Honey of West Bloomfield is set to open at the JCC
house,
families
gathered around — holding both deco-
Feb. 18.
rative bowls and plastic ones filled with soup or soil —
"The soup was wonderful," said Phyllis Hendin of
West Bloomfield. "My bowl is going with my collection to hear the Shalom Connection, a combined choir
from Temple Israel and the Third New Hope Baptist
of all the ones I've collected at other Empty Bowls pro-
Church of Detroit. They sang songs in Hebrew and
grams."
English from a repertoire they have been developing
Participants also could take home something to grow
since preparing for a concert at Temple Israel over the
to eventually put in their own soup.
summer.
"We've got bags of soil, cups, and seeds that can be
Participants left with brochures with information
started in a windowsill today and moved outside on the
first of May," said Bill Pioch, who volunteered as part of about the area's hungry and about ways to get involved -
and with the phrase: "Thanks for helping fill an empty
the Michigan Master Gardener Program.
stomach."
The Master Gardeners donated seed packets for
tomatoes, carrots, basil, lavender and more as part of

the presence of hunger in our own community."
Proceeds were divided between the Food Bank of
Oakland County, which provided 6.3 million pounds
of food in 2001, and Oak Park-based Yad Ezra,

❑

Clockwise from top left:
Madison Chomsky, 13, of Southfield reads to Eric and
Evan Grossman-Lempert of West Bloomfield.

Arlene Niskar of Oak Park and Brenda Sullivan of
Detroit perform with the combined choir from Third
New Hope Baptist Church in Detroit and Temple
Israel.

Margaret Prizer of Southfield looks for her bowl.

Ann Maria, Chris, Debbie and Theo Crossen of
Beverly Hills look for their bowls.

1/25
2002

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