Gary Moskowitz
SOUTHEAST GLENDALE -- Asia Wilcox, a senior at Glendale High School,
is hoping an epidemic will break out at school in June.
Asia, 17, hopes the epidemic will be a willingness among the school's
student population to help provide food for area residents who don't have
any.
Asia is one of 153 students in five ceramics classes at Glendale High
who are handcrafting ceramic bowls. In June, the bowls will be used to
raise money for Los Angeles area residents who don't have money to buy
food.
The students will sell ice cream sundaes in their bowls to fellow
students and faculty and all proceeds will go toward Empty Bowls, a
worldwide project that supports food banks, soup kitchens and other
organizations that deal with hunger.
Empty Bowls is promoted by the Imagine/RENDER Group, a nonprofit
organization based in Oxford, Mich.
"The empty bowl symbolizes hunger and, hopefully, what we are doing
will make people help more often," Asia said. "Hopefully we'll have a
little epidemic here in Glendale and everyone will get involved in
helping."
Christine Rose, the ceramics teacher at Glendale High, said students
will, in the next nine days, make 350 bowls to be sold the first week of
June for $5 each. Their goal is to raise about $1,000.
"People can then take the bowls home and keep as a reminder of hunger
in the world," Rose said. "And I just thought this year in particular we
needed to be aware of people in need."
Students start the process of making a bowl with water, clay and a
potter's wheel. They center the clay and begin opening it up into a donut
shape before manipulating the clay into the shape they want. After
trimming with a ribbon tool or paring knife, bowls are put in an electric
kiln at 1,800 degrees and finally into a gas kiln at 2,300 degrees.
In addition to teaching basic pottery techniques, Rose also discussed
California hunger statistics with her students before starting the
project.
According to the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University,
California was ranked in 1999 as the 11th worst state for hunger. Nearly
3 million children in California are eligible to receive free or reduced
priced lunch meals.
