13,400 bowls later: Local potters heed the call to feed kids in need at Butte's Empty Bowls

The day after the upcoming Empty Bowls fundraiser, the shelves that currently hold over 1,400 hand-crafted bowls will sit empty.

But for potters, they rejoice knowing they can start making bowls for next year’s event.

“Some of our potters, that’s all they do,” said Mike Kujawa, executive director of Hungry Hill. “That’s all they want to do.”

Butte’s annual Empty Bowls fundraiser sees around 1,200 community members gather at the Butte Civic Center. A ticket includes a bowl and grants entry for an evening of live music, soup, a cash bar and a silent auction.

“It’s more of a celebration,” said Kujawa.

This year’s fundraiser will take place on April 8 from 6-8 p.m.

Empty Bowls is an international project that supports food-related charitable organizations around the world. While the group provides guidance and asks organizers to use the Empty Bowls name. Each event is personalized by artists on a community level, and the money raised is distributed locally.

Butte's Empty Bowls

Butte’s Empty Bowls got its start in 2013 with a group that included two art teachers, a potter and the director of the Butte Emergency Food Bank.

The idea was to host an event that could help the food bank start their BackPack Program, which provides a bag of nonperishable food for students who have been identified as food insecure to take home over the weekends.

For the first Empty Bowls event, held in 2014, bowls were made in Kujawa’s classroom at Butte High School. On the night of the event, they ran out of soup.

The impact was immediate, according to Patty Higinbotham, a volunteer at the food bank who has been part of Empty Bowls since it launched. Teachers told the food bank that students were coming to school more ready to learn.

Empty Bowls reported that, from its start through May 2025, local artists have made more than 13,400 bowls and the event has raised more $800,000. The efforts have allowed the food bank to provide more than 140,000 meal bags to students through the BackPack Program.

The BackPack Program is largely sustained by Empty Bowls, in addition to grants and donations.

In the 2024-25 school year, the school district distributed 8,190 backpacks. The bags currently cost around $6.86, and the cost of the program is about $72,000 a year, according to Higinbotham.

When asked about the amount of community involvement, Higinbotham said organizers say Empty Bowls has a life of its own.

“It’s totally mind-blowing,” she said.

Hungry Hill

After Kujawa retired from teaching at Butte High School, Hungry Hill was created as a way to uphold the legacy of regional artists and volunteers crafting the bowls for the program.

Since its founding, Hungry Hill has evolved into a community-centered art hub with pottery classes, workshops and studio memberships that provide access to studio space, tools and supplies.

Kujawa estimates around 70 different potters helped complete the 1,400 needed pieces for this year’s Empty Bowls. Most of those potters are members at Hungry Hill, though a series of community days held once a month from September through March allows anyone to come in and help make bowls.

Judy Andrews, who’s been a part of the bowl-making process since moving to Butte a decade ago, said it feels amazing to be working alongside other potters with the same goals.

“I love the cause,” she said. “I love that we're filling empty backpacks for less-fortunate children.”

“I think it just really builds camaraderie between the fellow potters,” Andrews said. “It makes me feel good that I'm able to do a little bit, you know, to help out. And that's, I think, why everybody comes back.”

Donations and grants that help cover the costs of the materials, as well as the cost of the event, ensure that all of the money from the tickets goes directly to the food bank.

Tickets for this year’s event are still available at the Butte Food Bank, the Butte Civic Center and Hungry Hill.

Prices range from a $20 ticket, which includes a small bowl, mug or vase, a $50 ticket, which includes a medium-sized bowl, mug or vase, and a $100 ticket, which includes a family-sized bowl, vase or platter.

“From 10 years ago to what we're doing now, it is just incredible,” Andrews said of the craftsmanship of the bowls. “People that come to Empty Bowls this year are going to be amazed.”