To the editor: Show up for your community at Empty Bowls on Saturday

Here in Vermont, more than 83,000 people are experiencing food insecurity. In Windsor County, approximately one in eight of our neighbors lacks reliable access to enough food.

At the Chester-Andover Family Center, we provide more than 250 neighbors with supplemental food, and our numbers are climbing weekly. The rising costs of food, housing, utilities, and health care are stretching ours and our neighbors budgets beyond their limits, while government programs designed to support people in times of need are being weakened, reduced, or made harder to access.

This is where an empty bowl, warm soup, and you come in.

From 4:30 to 7 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 24, the Chester-Andover Family Center will hold our annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser at the Chester American Legion, 635 Rt. 103 south. There will be delicious soups, breads, and desserts donated by local restaurants and bakers, beautiful handmade bowls, raffle baskets, and live and silent auction items generously donated by businesses and community members. Entry is by donation, with no reservations or tickets needed. Give what you can.

As our one major annual fundraiser, the money raised at Empty Bowls directly determines how much food we can purchase, how consistently we can keep our shelves stocked, and how effectively we can respond to the growing needs of our neighbors.

I believe deeply that access to food is a basic human right and that government has a responsibility to protect that right. But the reality is that our government has once again left communities to fend for themselves.

Most of us grew up learning about the moral and ethical principle of caring for and loving our neighbors. We learned that service to one another and our communities is a sign of a good and decent society. But these ideals and values cannot live only in our conversations. They have to live in our actions.

We need you.

Attending Empty Bowls is an immediate way to turn talk into action. It is recognizing that another person’s well-being is connected to our own and that the struggles of our neighbors are not separate from those of our community.

So I am asking you to join me this Saturday night. Bring your family. Bring your friends. Enjoy a wonderful meal. Bid on something special. Buy a raffle ticket. Take home a beautiful bowl.

Show up for your community.

Because when we gather and contribute what we can, those individual acts become the foundation of a stronger, healthier, more vibrant community. For those who cannot attend, donations can be made by clicking here.

This is the work. Let’s do it.

In gratitude,

Anne Henshaw
Board Member
Chester-Andover Family Center

The views and opinions expressed in this letter are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the Chester-Andover Family Center or its Board of Directors.