TUPELO, Miss. - "It's mostly potters who are throwing bowls," Empty Bowls Chairman, Barbara Vaughn explains. "Someone asked me this week 'what is throwing.' If you hear Dean plop a lump of clay on that wheel you'll get the meaning of the word throwing."

Throwing and spinning, molding and hand crafting - for Vaughn and other members of the Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary it's a weekly routine.

"We've been making bowls every Tuesday since the last empty bowls, so it's an annual, on-going project all year," Vaughn says. "But the potters make contributions significantly too. Most of our potters that donate will donate an average of 50 to one-hundred (bowls), several of these donate two-or-three-hundred."

While donating 300 hand-made bowls is a lot, it'll only make-up for about a third of what's needed. The goal for the 11^th Annual Empty Bowls Luncheon: 2,400.

"Throwing the bowl, that might only take 10 to 20 minutes, they're really fast; but then the bowl has to be fired.  Of course they have to let it dry and clean it before they fire it, then it has to be glazed and fired again," Vaughn explains. "So there's a considerable amount of time and tending in the process."

When it's all said and done there will have been thousands of hours dedicated over the past 12 months. Volunteers say it's a small deed compared to the benefits.

"The last three years the Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary has donated 126 thousand dollars to the food program at Salvation Army," Vaughn says. "So it's just a little something that individuals can do toward the over all picture of feeding people."

The 11^th Annual Empty Bowls Luncheon will be held on on Ash Wednesday, February 17^th, 2010 at the Tupelo Furniture Market.

The Empty Bowls event in Lowndes County will be held Saturday, November 7 beginning at 11:00 am and going until 1:30 pm.  It will take place at the Shops at Brickerton, which is at the intersection of Hwy. 82 and Military Road in Columbus

A $10 donation provides soup and a handmade bowl, which you can keep.