Stratford House of Blessing looking for volunteers painting bowls for Empty Bowls fundraiser

Stratford House of Blessing is bringing back their Empty Bowls painting sessions. About 600 bowls need to be painted ahead of the fall fundraiser.

Whether you are an experienced painter or new to the craft, Stratford House of Blessing wants the community to come together and paint to support those in need.

The House of Blessing is looking for volunteers to stop in the food bank on 423 Erie St. and paint the bowls crafted for the Empty Bowls event on Oct. 24. The Empty Bowls fundraising event will be held at the Rotary Complex as attendees pick out handmade bowls and sample food from local restaurants and participate in the silent auction.

Aaron Balzer, resource coordinator, said that the House of Blessing saw a strong turnout so far for volunteer painters. Many of them painted bowls for the organization in previous years and came back this year to help out once more.

"Some of them come into the House of Blessing on a regular basis. A few of them take bowls home with them, so it's been great to have a lot of those people on board again,” Balzer said.

Along with returning painters, new volunteers are stopping by the House of Blessing to paint the bowls, including Your Neighbourhood Credit Union staff and groups of friends.

"There's a group of ladies who live in the same apartment building who come in a couple of times and are coming in again next week and we've even had some corporate groups,” Balzer said.

There’s still hundreds more bowls to paint until at least September, or until there are no more bowls to paint.

Stratford House of Blessing focuses on bringing the community together, whether it’s through residents feeding other residents in need through donations for the food bank or coming together for events such as Empty Bowls and for gatherings leading up to it.

"Community is at the heart of what we do. The Empty Bowls event is all about community,” Balzer said. “It's about bringing together artists and restaurants and community members for this event to raise money for the food bank so it's natural that the community is involved in also helping us get ready for this event."

Balzer added that other Empty Bowls events will just have potters make the bowls, but the House of Blessing likes to offer the painted bowls for their event.

"We really like the painted bowls. The unique art, the different artists different people bring, the different styles. It's really fun for people to pick out their bowl – a bowl that they really like. A bowl that speaks to them as it were,” he said. “That’s fun to get a variety and many different people and different artists to paint as possible."

House of Blessing is running painting sessions from Monday to Thursday between 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. To book your time slot, send an email to volunteer@shob.ca. Additional times for evenings and weekends will be announced via House of Blessing’s social media pages.