Food pantry's Empty Bowl has grown, thanks to a key organizer - NJ.com

Food pantry's Empty Bowl has grown, thanks to a key organizer - NJ.com

As the Flemington Area Food Pantry prepares for its 20th annual Empty Bowl fundraiser, it expects to build on a record that has seen the luncheon's proceeds for the area's hungry grow from an initial $3,000 to $24,000 last year.

The volunteer in charge of the Oct. 14 event, Karen Holmes, says much of the credit for the success should go to one person — the original organizer, Nancy Schultz, who is now 91.

Schultz, then 70, hadn't gone to college and had been a stay-at-home mother, but she "had a thing about hunger" and learned about an Empty Bowl fundraiser held in Minnesota, Holmes said.

"She decided we should do it here," Holmes said in an interview.

In a time when the Internet was still in its infancy, Schultz "opened the phone book" and with help from a local potter, Lynn Maszur, they "contacted potters from all around the county" to contribute their works.

In the fundraiser, potters donate their homemade bowls to a luncheon that provides soup contributed by area chefs and restaurants, along with bread, salad and dessert. 

Empty Bowl fundraiser turns 20

For the $25 ticket, a patron gets to take home the artisan bowl, in addition to getting lunch. The Oct. 14 luncheon at the Flemington United Methodist Church takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Schultz, who was unable to participate in the interview because of a health issue, was "indefatigable" for the event's first 18 years as she organized the event and helped expand it, Holmes said.

"She's a diminutive little person, but she has the town's respect and she was able to get people to donate to the pantry," Holmes said. "She's proof that you're never too old to make a huge difference."

The growth of the Empty Bowl parallels the growth of the food pantry itself.

Started in 1980 at the same Methodist Church, the pantry initially served 140 clients but now serves more than 5,000, Holmes said.

The pantry has moved several times, including one move that was necessitated by a devastating fire in 1994 at its newly acquired distribution building on Route 31.

Today, the pantry is housed in spacious quarters in a building behind the Wal-Mart on Route 31 just outside Flemington in Raritan Township and has ample refrigerator and freezer space along with shelves full of canned and boxed foods.

Because of Hunterdon County's wealth, the pantry is not eligible for state or federal funds and depends entirely on contributions, Holmes said.

And even though there are plenty of affluent people in Hunterdon, there is also a significant contingent of people who "fall through the cracks" and don't have enough money to pay for food, she pointed out.

They include divorced people who may not be getting enough income to support a household, disabled people who are unable to work, veterans with psychological problems and people who are working but "are not making a living wage," Holmes said.

Clients are allowed two trips a month to the food pantry, where a full range of groceries are available.

"For many people, it's temporary and they move on," Holmes said. "These are not people who intended to be here."

For the Oct. 14 event, some 50 potters are expected to contribute their bowls, Holmes said.

Food will be provided by Teaberry's Tea Room, Matt's Red Rooster Grill, Basil Bandwagon, Chive and Thyme Cafe, Metropolitan Seafood Co., the Amwell Church of the Brethren and the kitchens of ShopRite of Hunterdon County.