Members of the San Antonio Potters Guild held their first Empty Bowls event in November 2000 not too long after hearing about this worthy cause. That first year in San Antonio, the event was housed in the Chapel of the Southwest School of Art and Craft. Members remember it was pouring rain.

"We had no idea if anyone would even show up. We were amazed at the turnout -- we ran out of soup and bowls, but raised around $11,000.00 on that day."

Each year, the amount donated to charity has grown as Guild members have become more and more involved, sponsors have helped support the event through donations and the community has generously come to the event and gone home with hand-made bowls. Since that first year, the event has raised more than $100,000 to benefit SAMMinistries, one of the largest charities providing services to the homeless in San Antonio and the surrounding area.

In addition to the great community support for Empty Bowls, much of the credit should go to the enormous generosity of the many hardworking potters who have donated thousands of bowls and other handcrafted items for the Empty Bowls sale and silent auction.

Through this effort, the Guild -- and you and our many community supporters for the event -- make a regular donation to fight hunger each year.

• Empty Bowls is an international effort to raise funds for charities that support the hungry and homeless. It began in 1990 when a Michigan high school students and their teacher wanted to find a way to raise funds to support a food drive. Just one year later the concept developed into Empty Bowls and since that time the 501 (c) 3 organization has raised millions of dollars to combat hunger. (For more information about the effort visit www.emptybowls.net.) There are Empty Bowls events staged by ceramic artists all over Texas and the nation.
   
  
• The San Antonio Potters Guild's mission is to cultivate and nurture ceramic artists and collectors while at the same time celebrating and extending humanity's ten thousand-year heritage of fired clay. The membership is diverse, representing working potters, sculptural artists who work in clay, and students, as well as supporters of this field.
   
  
• SAMMinistries, an interfaith ministry dedicated to helping the homeless, was launched in 1983. The ministry assists an average of 400 individuals including 200 children every day of the year with emergency services, transitional and supportive housing as well as an after-care program. Last year the agency cared for more than 4,000 individuals and provided more than 169,000 bed nights of shelter and services to the area's homeless. Today SAMMinistries is supported by more than 175 churches and synagogues and over 7,100 volunteers.