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• Somerset plans Empty Bowls event

If you want to help in the fight against hunger, both locally and across the country, then circle May 29 on your calendar.

That is when the first "Empty Bowls" event will be held at Somerset High School.

The Empty Bowls project is one of two thematic units being conducted at Somerset High School this year.

Raising awareness that hunger is a local, as well as a national problem, is the goal of the Empty Bowls project.

The culmination of the Empty Bowls project will be an event held on Thursday, May 29, at the High School starting at 6:30 p.m. The event will serve as a fund-raiser for the Somerset Area Foodshelf. It will also raise funds for the Heifer Project, which is a campaign to battle hunger on a world-wide scale.

"The goal is to raise funds and raise awareness," said SHS teacher Jeanne Germain.

Many of the SHS classes are involved in the Empty Bowls project. Art classes are making ceramic bowls. Those bowls will be for sale that night. People purchasing bowls will be served a simple rice meal, in an effort to raise the awareness of the hunger problem.

The evening's events are also planned to serve as a cultural experience to show the causes and effects of hunger.

Business classes will be showing a presentation with images and statistics on hunger.

In English classes, the students will be reading pieces that address hunger.

History classes are studying the causes of world hunger and eras when hunger was at its worst in the United States, like during the Great Depression.

Science classes will be showing how malnutrition affects the human body. Math classes will be plotting out average living spaces in different areas of the world.

The SHS band and choir will be performing during the event. The American Sign Language (ASL) class will be signing one of the songs that will be performed. Forensics and advanced speech students will also be making presentations during the event.

A design contest was held to develop a local Empty Bowls design. The winning design, which will be unveiled in the near future, was created by SHS seniors MaKayla Berg and Hanna Newman.

Empty Bowls projects have proven to be very successful in Osceola and New Richmond. Somerset has modelled its program on the program run in Osceola.