LANSING - Generous hearts filled empty bowls Friday for the Greater Lansing Food Bank's 25th Annual Empty Bowls Event held at Troppo in Lansing. 

For a donation of $20, attendees received a bowl of soup, a dinner roll, a glass of water and a handmade bowl to take home. 

Close to 1,000 residents in the Lansing area came out to support the event, donated money and indulged in a bowl of soup. 

Joe Wald, Executive Director of the Greater Lansing Food Bank, GLFB, said the event has grown immensely since it first began 25 years ago and he is more than pleased with this year's turn out. 

"For the last 25 years the potters have worked with the Greater Lansing Food Bank to create an event that will attract positive attention to the food bank, give them some lunch and bring in revenue to help feed people in this community," Wald said. "It has grown continuously to the point where this year we have between 700 and 1,000 people over a two hour period."

The soup and bread served during the event was prepared and donated by Troppo and handmade bowls given to attendees were created by the Greater Lansing Potters’ Guild and Clayworks Pottery. 

Lansing resident Cheryl Blonde said she continues to support the event after 10 years of attending because it helps put community members in the shoes of those less fortunate. 

"Part of the idea is to see what the homeless people could be eating. Instead of a big lunch that a lot of people eat for lunch we have a small bowl of soup and glass of water and a small roll," Blonde said. "It does bring you back into reality about what some people do get for lunch."  
 
Although the GLFB has to reach a goal of about $2 million a year, Wald said the real goal of the Food Bank goes far beyond the monetary goal. 

"Even if the economy gets better we find more and more working families who can't make it," Wald said. "Our goal, our mantra, our theory is no one in our community should go hungry and we make sure that that's a fact."