Small bowls raise big funds for hunger

TAMPA - A bowl of soup went a long way in downtown Tampa Thursday. Hundreds were given a modest lunch; soup, a piece of bread, an apple and water.

The event was the Empty Bowls luncheon, and the meal was the same as one might get at a soup kitchen.

"They might not feel totally satisfied, but that at least is something to fill your stomach. And get you to the next meal," said Pat Rogers, from America's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay.

The Empty Bowls luncheon raises money for the hungry. Geri Shoffstall came out for lunch, and said she knows what's it like to be hungry.

"Belly kissing, back bone hunger. So I don't want anyone to experience that. I wish I could do more, " she explained.

Shoffstall said, as a child, her family didn't have enough.

"You didn't even have to look in the cupboards to know it was bare. There was nothing there," she said.

Shoffstall grew up in Pennsylvania and hundreds in her town worked for the steel mills. They would all be laid off, including her father, for six months during the year.

Even now, 55 years later, she still tears up describing her threadbare past.

In this present day, many families in our community barely have enough to fill their stomach. Chuck Cummings, who works in downtown, said he didn't want to miss the lunch.

"It's a shame with all the abundance of food, that anyone has to be hungry at all. It's a shame," he said.

Each person gave a $10 donation. They each picked out a bowl, made by local school children.

Ten-year-old D'Marys Aguirre from Crestwood Elementary said she loved helping others.

"I think it was a great opportunity to be out here today and to see and feel how it is to be a homeless person," she said.

Lloyd Brown got a bowl and had his lunch too. But he knows what it's like to be homeless: for two years, he says he slept near the police department, at night. He now has a temp job and has landed back on his feet.

"It sure ain't easy living out here on the street. A lot of people don't know, these people who have good jobs, they don't know what it is to live homeless," explained Brown.

Shoffstall said we never really know how close we are to being hungry.

"It could be any of us, you never know, from one day to the next."

Last year, this event raised over $50,000 for the Food Bank and its Kids Cafe Programs.