Empty Bowls Westchester Hosts 2nd Annual Fundraiser to Fight Food Insecurity

Chappaqua Cares (www.chappaquacares.org), an organization dedicated to connecting local residents with philanthropic opportunities for volunteering, fundraising and donating, will host its 2nd annual Empty Bowls Westchester event to fight hunger in Westchester County. The fundraiser, which includes a celebrity bowl auction with bowls signed by Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, James Taylor, Carrie Underwood, Pinkalicious and New York Mets players, will take place on Sunday, November 13 at the Whippoorwill Club 150 Whippoorwill Road, Armonk, from 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm. 

The inaugural Empty Bowls Westchester fundraiser raised $100,000 in one evening to support local food pantries in Northern Westchester including The Mt. Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, The Community Center of Northern Westchester and the Pleasantville Interfaith Emergency Food Pantry. The Mt. Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry received a donation of $52,450, the largest donation the Pantry ever received.  

“The Empty Bowls event hosted by Chappaqua Cares is a powerful example of the enormous difference a community of caring people can make for their neighbors in need,” says Laura Demarais, President of the Board for The Mt. Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry. “Proceeds from this event, along with the ongoing monthly support from the Chappaqua Cares community, enabled our pantry to distribute a generous array of nutritious groceries to more than half of the 35,000 people in Northern Westchester County we served this past year.” The Mt. Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, staffed almost entirely by volunteers, provided groceries to feed more than 35,000 Northern Westchester residents last year, up more than 12.5% or 4,000+ people from the previous year. 

The Community Center of Northern Westchester received a $16,000 donation from Empty Bowls, which enabled them to provide five days of fresh fruit and vegetables to over 200 families each week during the cold winter months, when donations from area farms were not available. 

“The generous donation from Empty Bowls affords each family the opportunity to make healthy choices, to cook nutritionally sound and flavorful meals for the family at home and to model good eating habits for their children,” says Clare Murray, Executive Director, The Community Center of Northern Westchester. 

Since 2000, suburban poverty has increased 65%. Approximately 200,000 — or one in five — residents in Westchester County are food insecure.  More than one-third are children under the age of 18 and 22% are senior citizens. In Mt. Kisco, 14% of residents are estimated to be living at or below the federal poverty level and 20% of students in the Bedford Central School District qualified for free or reduced-price lunches (2013-2014). 

All proceeds from Empty Bowls Westchester will benefit The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, The Community Center of Northern Westchester and the Pleasantville Interfaith Emergency Food Pantry. Event tickets are $125 and can be purchased online at  http://www.chappaquacares.org/empty-bowls. 

About Empty Bowls Westchester:

Empty Bowls Westchester is part of the Empty Bowls project, an international grassroots effort to raise money and awareness in the fight against hunger. Empty Bowls communities work together to create handcrafted bowls for guests to enjoy a simple meal of soup and bread in these bowls.  Guests are invited to take their bowls home to serve as a reminder of all of the people in the world whose bowls are empty on a daily basis.

For more information about sponsorship opportunities and donations, contact Empty Bowls Westchester at chappaquacares@gmail.com  or find them on Facebook at EmptyBowlsWestchester and Twitter @chappaquacares.