News Release

Empty Bowls to benefit Oregon Food Bank

PORTLAND, Ore. (June 16, 2008) — Blues fans will find more than music at the 21st anniversary of the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, July 3 to 6. They’ll also find beautiful, pottery bowls at the Oregon Potter Association’s Empty Bowls booth at the festival.

Empty Bowls is a fund-raising event coordinated by the Oregon Potters Association (OPA), a group of potters working in Oregon and southwest Washington. OPA collects hundreds of pottery donations from its member ceramic artists throughout the year. OPA members then sell the donated pottery—often for just $10—at the Empty Bowls booth at the Waterfront Blues Festival.

All proceeds from Empty Bowls benefit Oregon Food Bank and its work to eliminate hunger and its root causes … because no one should be hungry.

Last year, OPA’s Empty Bowls fund-raiser raised more than $12,000 Oregon Food Bank.

The empty bowl symbolizes hunger and poverty faced by people throughout the world. In an average month, an estimated 192,000 people rely on food from emergency food boxes to stave off hunger in Oregon and Clark County, Wash.

A group of Michigan potters created Empty Bowls in 1991. The program is now a fund-raising project in nearly all 50 states.

About Oregon Food Bank: Oregon Food Bank is a nonprofit, charitable organization. It is the hub of the Oregon Food Bank Network, a statewide network of 20 regional food banks and 919 hunger-relief agencies serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash.

About festival sponsors: The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is presented by First Tech Credit Union. Major sponsors include FedEx Freight, PacificSource Health Plans, iQ Credit Union, Daimler Truck Financial, Land Rover, The Oregonian A&E, KINK.fm and Travel Portland. Supporting sponsors include Burt’s Bees, Good Neighbor Pharmacy, Miller Brewing Co., Henry Weinhard's, Deschutes Brewery, Beringer Wine, Snapple, Pepsi, Nutrisoda, Earth2o Water, Frito Lay Snacks, Yoshida Sauce, Mission Foods, Dreyer’s Ice Cream, NW Natural, FedEx Kinko’s, Impact Advertising, Edge Design, The Boeing Company, PGE, KBOO, OregonLive.com, Blues Revue, Music Millennium, Karolyn March, Guitar Center, Lions Foundation, Cascade Blues Association, Oregon Potters Association, Cascade Zydeco and Delta Music Experience.