WESTFIELD - A large group of students at Westfield High School combined their artist and culinary talents to make Christmas a little brighter for the city's disadvantaged population.
An estimatd 150 students spent the better part of the past year promoting Empty Bowls, a soup dinner fundraiser held Oct. 27 to benefit the Westfield Food Pantry.
Thursday many of those students were on hand to present more than $1,500 to Rebecca Hart, executive director of the Food Pantry, and Mayor Brian P. Sullivan.
"The money we raised is going to something good and it will make someone's life a little better," said Westfield High senior Christian Velgado, 18. "This was a project that benefits our community," he added.
Westfield High junior Nathan Navarro, 16, explained that "students involved participated in making ceramic bowls, place mats, posters and other things to make the Empty Bowls project a success. A lot of us worked on this project."
The project was coordinated by art teachers Karen West, Monica DeFranca, Susan Willey and Ann Marie Picard and culinary arts teacher Margaret Toomey.
Picard said the total proceeds from the Oct. 27 event, which included members of the high school's chorus and band, was $1,550.
"We plan to make this an annual event," Picard said. The Empty Bowls event featured soup, salad and cake meal, receipt of a student hand-crafted ceramic bowl, placement, cloth napkin and napkin ring.
Hart told students "we at the Food Pantry appreciate your commitment and we take donor intent veery seriously." She said the pantry serves 1,300 Westfield clients and that 51 percent of that group are under age 18.
She then offered three options for use of the funding. She said the money could be used immediately to provide Thanksgiving dinners; be saved and used to provide hams and other food items to clients at Christmas or use the proceeds to help finance the pantry's Summer Feeding Program.
Students overwhelmingly chose Christmas.
The mayor told students "You put out a really good produce and what you did is going to help many less fortunate members of the community. Thank you for your efforts."
DeFranca noted the efforts of students "went above and beyond with their time and commitment to the project."
In addition to pizza Thursday, students were treated to cupcakes compliments of Mama Cakes bakery on Elm Street.
