The Enumclaw community is looking to fill empty stomachs, one bowl at a time.

On Friday, March 2, businesses and organizations all over the Plateau are hosting the 7th annual Empty Bowls event at Enumclaw High School from 4 to 7 p.m.

Empty Bowls events occur all over the U.S., and since there’s no centralized organization, they’re all put together locally. The first Empty Bowls event was held in 1990 in Michigan.

More than 25 local businesses are sponsoring this event, either financially or — in the case of Green River College and Enumclaw’s Arts Alive — materially, since all the bowls provided at the event were hand-made by students.

About 300 ceramic bowls were crafted for this event, some by local potters Amanda Skipworth, Nathalie Weyer and Arts Alive artists.

The event’s $20 ticket fee, paid for at the door, covers the cost of a bowl and a simple meal of soup, rolls and cookies.

The soup will be made locally by The Kettle restaurant, Enumclaw Rehab’s Cornerstone Cafe and the Enumclaw School District.

Cookies will be baked by High Point Village and Cascade Place retirement homes, and Expressions nursing home.

The reason why soup is the main meal of the night is to represent what many people experience daily, said Julie Iunker, who took the lead on organizing the event this year.

“If you still feel hungry you are not alone,” she continued. “This is a very powerful statement to make in Enumclaw. We have a population on the plateau that does not have enough food. In a community such as ours, this is not acceptable.”

All money raised at the event will be split in half and donated to the Enumclaw Food Bank and Plateau Outreach Ministries, which also operates a food bank.

In total, Enumclaw’s Empty Bowl events have raised more than $31,000 for local food banks.