Published:
By Amy J. Barry
A basic meal of hearty soup served in handmade bowls with a side of bread to benefit a nonprofit that helps those in need. It may sound simple but looks can be deceiving.
It took a team of Central professors, students, and staff to pull together the Empty Bowls fundraiser taking place Thursday, Nov. 17, at New Britain’s Smalley Elementary School. Proceeds benefit The Friendship Service Center, which provides services for those at risk of experiencing homelessness in central Connecticut.
“We’re thrilled to have students participating in this cross effort,” says Dr. Sarah Stookey, associate professor of Management and Organization in the School of Business. “It’s a wonderful example of what we can achieve when we collaborate across departments on campus.”
Dr. Stookey, faculty organizer of the event, says Central held an empty bowls fundraiser 10 years ago at Trinity on Main in New Britain.
“We’re very excited to be able to make it happen again,” she says. “It’s an opportunity for our students to see how the concepts and tools from our classes connect to real-world work. It seemed like a joyful and productive project for students to participate in that I could make fit with the learning objectives of my classes. We chose the Friendship Service Center this year because it does such important work helping people in need.”
Stookey says Andrea Foligno, principal of Smalley Elementary School, along with her staff, have been indispensable to the project, noting that their students participated by making decorations for the event.
A variety of soups, including vegetarian options, are being donated by local restaurants and stores, along with Sodexo, which provides dining services at Central.
Event attendees can choose a bowl for their soup to keep. The handmade bowls were thrown, trimmed, and glazed under the direction of art professors Susan Dane and Vicente Garcia during a special ceramics studio evening promoted to Central students and alumni. The enthusiastic response yielded 200 bowls.
Among the many other contributors to the fundraiser were Jeanne Criscola's design students, who contributed the graphic designs used on the flyers and digital promotion.
“We are not a top-down organization, she says. “This has been a collaborative community campus project. Students have been taking on lots of roles and responsibilities. It’s not just a simple dinner. They’re learning about each other and how to work together.”
Students in Dr. Stookey’s two sections of Fundamentals of Management and Organization were divided into seven teams to coordinate all aspects of the event: bowl production, food, tickets, entertainment, decoration/setup/serving, and cleanup.
Several of the students explained how the hands-on project connected to the subject matter in their classes.
“Seamlessly,” says Olivia Rijotte, “It gave the teams firsthand practice in what it is like to be a manager.”
George Hughes adds, “My role as leader of the promotion team connected with skills I’ve learned in marketing and management.”
The students noted that the project was particularly effective because it taught them about being a team member.
“The part of the project I most enjoyed was working with faculty members, as well as members of the Smalley Elementary School population,” Hughes says.
“I most enjoyed the little moments when things all fell into place,” Rijotte recalls. “It’s very rewarding to be able to check off each of our team's objectives as the project developed.”
“All in all, this project was really something fun to complete,” says Ivette Martinez. “It brings all that we learned into something tangible, and to top it off, it’s for a good cause.”
Support for the Empty Bowls project was provided by the Center for Community Engagement and Social Research, headed by Dr. Beth Frankel Merenstein, assistant vice president for Community Engagement at Central.
“We have so many opportunities to work with the community in a multitude of ways,” Dr. Merenstein says. “This fundraiser is one example of the kind of things we do. We work a lot with nonprofit organizations in New Britain.”
Merenstein stresses that Central’s role is to create a meaningful reciprocal relationship with the City of New Britain.
“Our goal is to offer the community skills, resources, and knowledge and to offer every student experiential learning outside the classroom — a service project, an internship, a research opportunity,” Dr. Merenstein says. “I’m hoping to institutionalize a lot of the projects and events that we’re getting off the ground again.”
Pre-sale tickets are $14.25 for Central students and children and $20.25 for general admission. Tickets at the door are $15 for Central students and children; $22 general admission.