Empty Bowls of Bowling Green is gearing up for its 11th annual dinner event on March 6, the first time the event will return to a sit-down dinner after spending several years under limits surrounding COVID-19.

Amber Kelleher, media coordinator for Empty Bowls of Bowling Green, said this year’s event will take place at Forest Park Baptist Church (520 Old Morgantown Road). It was previously held at St. James Methodist Church but, as the event has grown, a bigger space was needed.

“They’re allowing us to use the facilities to accommodate everybody,” Kelleher said. “We’re hoping to get about 600 people.”

Bowling Green’s event is part of a nationwide Empty Bowls movement to raise awareness around the issue of food insecurity. Those who attend eat soup and get to choose a handcrafted bowl to take home.

Kelleher said the bowls taken by attendees serve as a reminder that “not everyone has food on the table.”

Typically, she said, the event raises over $10,000 for local charity organizations. In Bowling Green, the nonprofit HOTEL INC and Warren County Schools have been the beneficiaries from the event for the past few years.

Kelleher said the money goes to HOTEL INC’s Delafield Co-Op grocery store, and WCPS uses funds to support its Synergy Center. Speaking on the soup served during the event, she said it comes from different local restaurants.

“They provide the soup, and the rolls and the cookies and the beverages are usually in house. So it’s lemonade, iced tea, that kind of thing,” she said.

As for the several hundred bowls available to attendees, Kelleher said they range from those made by professional potters to those made by ceramics students at Western Kentucky University and kids at Warren County schools.

“You get to keep your bowl, and it is hopefully going to remind you that there are people that actually are experiencing hunger in our community, and that we’re trying to eradicate that,” she said.

Tickets for the event will go on sale around the second week of February. Entry to the event is $15, which covers a meal and a bowl to take home.

Once available, tickets may be purchased at http://www.emptybowlsbg.com/ or at the door on March 6.