Bread of the Mighty, a branch location of Feeding Northeast Florida (FNEFL), hosted its annual Empty Bowls fundraising event on Thursday with an estimated crowd of about 200 attendees. 

The event, presented by Morgan & Morgan, featured bowls created by high school students from Buchholz High School, Gainesville High School and Oak Hall Schools. Each attendee was allowed to pick one empty bowl as a reminder of those who “face an empty bowl on a daily basis.” 

The annual fundraiser helps support Bread of the Mighty and Feeding Northeast Florida’s work to provide healthy food and resources for over 272,000 people experiencing food insecurity in a 12-county service area. 

According to organizers, one in seven people in the community faces food insecurity, and one in five children goes to bed hungry. 

“This event is a chance for us to reconnect with community… and to meet with community members and really just share the work that’s been done, the accomplishments of the year, and focus everybody on the challenge of food insufficiency and hunger,” Susan King, FNEFL’s CEO, said in an interview. 

For every $1 donated, Bread of the Mighty Food Bank can provide up to six meals. 

Bread of the Mighty itself serves four counties— Alachua, Gilchrist, Levy and Union—but merged with FNEFL last year to share resources. Before the merger, Bread of the Mighty had not hosted an Empty Bowls event since 2019, but last year the event’s reintroduction also served to introduce the partnership. 

In a little over a year since the merger, King said the partnership has allowed the expansion of Bread of the Mighty freezer space and racking, and cooler capacity. She said FNEFL spent a lot of time listening to the community to figure out the best way to go about the merger without “taking over.” 

King said the Empty Bowls event is a great opportunity to connect with community members, and Bread of the Might staff that Jacksonville-based FNEFL doesn’t often see. After choosing their handmade bowls, attendees sat down to share a soup lunch provided by Afternoon Restaurant. 

Bread of the Mighty works alongside 120 other nonprofit organizations to serve areas of need, and Bread of the Mighty executive director Patrick Dodds said those partnerships allow Bread of the Mighty to do more than just put food in empty bowls. 

“One of the things that I love about the work that we do is, it’s driven by the community… We’re really fortunate that we get to work alongside some amazing organizations, and people in the community,” Dodds said in an interview.