Urban Ministries of Durham’s 7th Annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser Takes Place March 7th

A full belly is something many who read this take for granted - if they even think about it at all.  For many, though, the sensation is at best a recent memory.  Durham's Urban Ministries works to fix that problem and others, and raises money and awareness each year with the Empty Bowls event which is an approachable way for people to be part of the solution, and for local restaurants to have a chance to compete and show off a bit.  That's a double bonus for attendees given the quality of Durham's chefs.

The annual battle for the “Best Soup in Durham” will take place Thursday, March 7th from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at the Durham Convention Center (301 West Morgan Street).  Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD) will hold its seventh annual Empty Bowls event presented by Olive & Olive, P.A. to raise much-needed funds to help UMD serve over 200,000 meals a year to those in need.

Attendees get to sample soups prepared by more than a dozen local restaurants and can vote for their favorite.  The light dinner of soup is a reminder that many people in Durham do not have enough to eat.  Local artists and artisans have donated their talents to create over 800 hand-crafted bowls for attendees to pick and take home.  There is also a panel of celebrity judges who vote and the evening will be serenaded by Moment’s Notice/St. Ambrose Jazz Mass Quartet.

More than 900 tickets were sold last year raising over $30,000 to benefit the people served by Urban Ministries of Durham’s Community Café.

There are three types of tickets to the event this year. The Hot Ticket includes soup and a bowl for $50.  It’s a hot ticket because you can have first choice of the bowls from 5:30 pm until 6:00 pm. There will only be 200 of these tickets available. The Regular Ticket includes soup and bowl for $35.  Bowls can be picked after 6:00 pm. Then there is the  Soup Only Ticket for $15.00
Children six and under can attend for free, and tickets can be bought online at online.

This year's roster of competing restaurants, and the soups they will be making, certainly makes it easy to justify the purchase price of a ticket.  They are:

• 604 at West Village: Tomato Polenta
• Bleu Olive Mediterranean Bistro: Chicken Avgolemono
• Bull City Burger and Brewery: Vegetarian White Chipotle Chili
• Durham Convention Center: Roasted Butternut Bisque with Pear and Sage
• The Mad Hatter’s Café and Bake Shop: Lime Chick and Roasted Corn
• Mediterranean Deli: Lentil Soup
• Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse: Catfish Stew
• Piedmont:  Cream of Kale Soup with Sourdough Croutons
• Pizzeria Toro: Lettuce Soup with Brown Butter Croutons and Clabber
• Saladelia Café:  Vegan Black Bean Chili
• Six Plates Wine Bar: Sweet Potato Bisque
• The Pit: Brunswick Stew
• Thrills From the Grill: Collard Green Soup
• Toast Paninoteca: Spicy Chickpea Puree with Lemony Swiss Chard
• Urban Ministries of Durham Community Café:  French Onion Soup
• Watts Grocery: White Bean and Pancetta

The soups will be judged by a panel of some of Durham's culinary luminaries, and other prominent members of the community, and attendees can vote, too.  At the end, both a fan favorite and a judge's favorite will be named.  The judges are: 

• Jay O'Berski:  Artistic director of The Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern and teaches acting at Duke.
• Sean Lilly Wilson:  Founder and Chief Executive Optimist of Fullsteam Brewery
• Tisha Powell:  Co-anchor for WTVD ABC11 Eyewitness News
• Mike Woodard:  State Senator
• Johanna Kramer:  Food blogger for johannakramer.com

Learn more about all of the great food events happening here all the time on the Durham Event Calendar, and more about dining in Durham online.

Empty Bowl? Guess Your Money Got SPENT.

Durhamites love good food, and the food community delivers on that as aggressively as the public asks them to. Proof of that is coming this Thursday night at the annual Empty Bowls Benefit held in the Durham Armory from 5:30 to 8:30. Tickets can be purchased here.

The event raises money for the Urban Ministries of Durham's Community Cafe' which serves three meals a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  Some of Durham's best chefs, restaurants and food retailers will bring soups and set up at the Armory for attendees to sample each product at their own pace. There will also be desserts. Funds are raised through ticket sales, as well as through the sale of handmade ceramic bowls supplied by several local organizations. There will be live music and a great crowd of like-minded folks with whom to mingle and support a great cause.

When the event is over, don't let UMD's purpose escape...the plight of the homeless is a core focus for them and they have an interesting tool to help supporters get the message even more concretely. The organization also directs a lot of attention and energy to teaching people how easy it is to become financially insolvent. In a cooperative effort with McKinney, the largest advertising agency in the Southeast and based in Durham, the "game" SPENT was developed as a tool to educate the public on how easy it is to become homeless. In short, the game is not fun; it is sobering, real, and thought-provoking. Having received significant national attention, the game has gone viral and is receiving traffic from around the world. One play is typically all it takes to drive the message home.