What is hunger? What is food insecurity? What is the Empty Bowls Project?

Our second annual EMPTY BOWLS WHS DINNER & FUNDRAISER will be held on 
Friday, March 24, 2017 from 530-8pm (snow date 3/31)
in the HS large and middle cafeterias

LIKE us on Facebook @Empty Bowls WHS

Follow us on Instagram @emptybowlswhs

Food Inspired Slump/Hump Mold Bowls

*PROJECT GOAL: The Empty Bowls Project is an international grassroots effort to raise both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger. Students will participate in Washingtonville High School’s second Annual Empty Bowls Project by creating ceramic bowls inspired by their favorite foods. Through the introduction of videos, discussions, and online research, students will learn how their favorite foods are farmed, processed, and sold, as well as why people, even in our local communities, are struggling with food insufficiency. Students will be invited to sell their bowls at the school’s Empty Bowls Dinner event in March of 2017 to help raise money for the Hudson Valley Food Bank and the Country Kids Food Pantry of Washingtonville. Students will learn to prepare clay, make basic slabs, and use the slump/hump mold method to create their bowl forms. Other techniques such as carving, stamping, relief, sculpture, and glazing will be introduced and used to add color, dimension, texture, pattern and sculptural forms to these bowls.

On 9/28 and 9/29 Ms. Held's Clay classes learned how the food they eat ends up on their plates. We watched a video (see below) and discussed the industrial agriculture food system, as well as brainstormed ways in which we can make better food choices, both for our own health and that of the planet. We learned how this industrial food system is contributing to the cycle of poverty, malnutrition and hunger in the world.

      Industrial Agriculture

We also discussed what "hunger," "food insecurity," and "malnutrition" really means. Using videos, a Kahoot trivia quiz (on global, national, and local hunger statistics), and class discussions, we learned that the main cause of food insecurity in the world was poverty. We watched stories of Americans who are struggling to put food on the table. See the links below to watch some of the videos we watched together in class:

What is Hunger? What is Food Insecurity?

American Hunger Stories Part 1

American Hunger Stories Part 2

  

Then Ms. Held showed her Clay classes a short documentary made in 2015-2016 about our Empty Bowls WHS project. This video provided the Clay students with a general idea of what the 2nd annual Washingtonville High School Empty Bowls WHS Dinner Event might look like. The Empty Bowls Project is an international grassroots effort to raise both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger. This year's Clay students will participate in Washingtonville High School’s second annual Empty Bowls Dinner Event by creating ceramic bowls inspired by their favorite foods. Students will be invited to sell their bowls at the dinner event on March 24, 2017 to help raise money for the Hudson Valley Food Bank. Parent bowl-making workshop coming soon...

Empty Bowls WHS 2016 Documentary Short

Click here for photographs of the Empty Bowls WHS 2016 Dinner & Fundraiser Event

Click Here for a slideshow of the bowl making process

Click here for photographs of Food-Inspired Bowls from 2015-2016 Clay students

Food as a Theme and Material in the Visual Arts

Our second annual EMPTY BOWLS WHS DINNER & FUNDRAISER will be held on 
Friday, March 24, 2017 from 530-8pm (snow date 3/31)
in the HS large and middle cafeterias

LIKE us on Facebook @Empty Bowls WHS

Follow us on Instagram @emptybowlswhs

Food Inspired Slump/Hump Mold Bowls

*PROJECT GOAL: The Empty Bowls Project is an international grassroots effort to raise both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger. Students will participate in Washingtonville High School’s second Annual Empty Bowls Project by creating ceramic bowls inspired by their favorite foods. Through the introduction of videos, discussions, and online research, students will learn how their favorite foods are farmed, processed, and sold, as well as why people, even in our local communities, are struggling with food insufficiency. Students will be invited to sell their bowls at the school’s Empty Bowls Dinner event in March of 2017 to help raise money for the Hudson Valley Food Bank and the Country Kids Food Pantry of Washingtonville. Students will learn to prepare clay, make basic slabs, and use the slump/hump mold method to create their bowl forms. Other techniques such as carving, stamping, relief, sculpture, and glazing will be introduced and used to add color, dimension, texture, pattern and sculptural forms to these bowls.

After our food sensory lesson, Ms. Held introduced a Brief History of Food & Art. This PowerPoint provided a historical overview of how humans have incorporated the theme of food into their works of art for thousands of years. 

A Brief History of Food and Art PowerPoint

The students were really amazed by the work of the contemporary Italian Artist, Roberto Bernardi, whose photorealistic paintings of candy (amongst other subject matter) were so lifelike the students simply did not believe they weren't photographs. For more information about Roberto Bernardi's work check out this link:

Roberto Bernardi's website

The students were particularly fascinated by the work of the contemporary British artist, Carl Warner, a photographer who creates "Foodscapes" out of real food and then photographs these bizarre scenes to create imaginary and sometimes "delicious" worlds. Warner uses his work to encourage people to eat healthy. The leftover food from his "Foodscapes" are fed to his staff and donated to homeless shelters. For more information about Carl Warner's work check out these two links:

Carl Warner's Foodscapes on CNN

UNIT 1: Food Inspired Bowls-Food Meditation and Sensory Lesson

UNIT 1:  EMPTY BOWLS PROJECT

Food Inspired Slump/Hump Mold Bowls

*PROJECT GOAL: The Empty Bowls Project is an international grassroots effort to raise both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger. Students will participate in Washingtonville High School’s second Annual Empty Bowls Project by creating ceramic bowls inspired by their favorite foods. Through the introduction of videos, discussions, and online research, students will learn how their favorite foods are farmed, processed, and sold, as well as why people, even in our local communities, are struggling with food insufficiency. Students will be invited to sell their bowls at the school’s Empty Bowls Dinner event in March of 2017 to help raise money for the Hudson Valley Food Bank and the Country Kids Food Pantry of Washingtonville. Students will learn to prepare clay, make basic slabs, and use the slump/hump mold method to create their bowl forms. Other techniques such as carving, stamping, relief, sculpture, and glazing will be introduced and used to add color, dimension, texture, pattern and sculptural forms to these bowls.

The introductory lesson to this unit includes 2 activities that help set the stage for the unit theme, favorite foods.

FOOD MEDITATION:  The first activity is a food meditation exercise in which the students were guided through a 5-minute visual meditation. They were asked to visualize their favorite food or meal and image what their food tastes, feels, smells and looks like. Then they were asked to write or draw about what they imagined and share their responses with the class.

FOOD SENSORY LESSON: The second activity was a food sensory experiment. 18 mystery food samples were places on the student desks and the students were asked to move about the room and taste, touch, smell, and look at each sample and then write down their reactions. The big "reveal" of the mystery food samples happened at the end of class as we discussed our reactions and findings.