Ogden Empty Bowls’ event to help benefit the Weber Cares Food Pantry is set to run in tandem with next week’s First Friday Art Stroll, on Nov. 6, from 6-9 p.m. at The Monarch.

Ogden Empty Bowls organizer and Weber State University professor Monica Linford told the Standard-Examiner that the main contributor of bowls for sale is her class.

“I teach a class that I designed called Words and Wares,” she said. “It’s an honors course where students write creative nonfiction essays and do pottery projects that complement those essays, and as part of Weber State’s Community Engaged Learning Program … my students participate in this Empty Bowls event.”

She said that Empty Bowls goes well beyond Ogden.

“Empty Bowls is an international grassroots movement where potters get together and sell bowls to benefit a food charity,” she said. “There are Empty Bowls in cities all over.”

Linford said participating in the event in Salt Lake City helped inspire her to integrate it into her class, hosting the first iteration in 2022. She said this will be the first year that the event will run without grant funding backing it up.

“For this year, we’ve moved to the Monarch,” she said “We are working in conjunction with the First Friday Art Stroll.”

She said the evening will also include food and live music at the Monarch. The event will also include a section memorializing late WSU professor Dr. Judy Elsley.

Linford said, as has been the case with past Empty Bowls events in Ogden, 100% of the money earned will go toward the Weber Cares Pantry on the WSU campus.

“I’m an academic advisor,” she said. “When I first started doing academic advising, I learned about the problem of food insecurity on college campuses. Students report experiencing food insecurity at a rate of about between 30%-40% nationwide, depending on what college it is.”

She noted that WSU is not an exception.

“Weber State has a food insecurity report from students at a level of a little over 30%,” she said. “About a third of our students report that they experience food insecurity while they are going to college, so I feel like the food pantry is very important here on campus.”

Linford said she’s enjoyed watching the event grow over the last few years.

“It has created a lot of community within Ogden,” she said. “I think that the support of potters around the area has really grown.”