THE Slow Food Noosa Empty Bowl lunch raised more than $3000 for the Timor-Leste Red Cross community health and nutrition program for women.
Held on Sunday 21 June at the Cooroy Butter Factory, the lunch was a unique fund-raising idea from Slow Food Noosa where attendees were served soup as part of a three-course lunch prepared by chef Michael Jenkins from View Restaurant at Outrigger Little Hastings Street in a one-of-a-kind ceramic bowl.
Guests were able to take their bowl home while a selection of handmade bowls were auctioned on the day.
More than 80 bowls featured on the day, and were handcrafted and donated by award-winning artists Shannon Garson, Rowley Drysdale, Megan Puls, Anne Mossman, Carol Forster, Yeats Gruin, Michael Pugh, Ellen Appleby and many more, while potters from community studios such as Noosa Ceramics Centre at Wallace House, and The Ceramics Studio at The Butter Factory Arts Centre and Quixotica, and a few potters from Sydney were also represented at the event.
Well known Maleny ceramicist and president of The Australian Ceramics Association, Shannon Garson, talked about “The Ceramic Bowl“, and information about the Timor Leste Red Cross program was on display.
The problem of malnutrition in Timor-Leste is widespread as Anita Pereira, a T-L volunteer explains “Malnutrition is ever-present but underreported in Timor-Leste. More than half of children are chronically malnourished.
“Cruz Vermelha de Timor-Leste are supporting mothers through education and practical programmes to provide better nutrition and basic hygiene and health care for their children as well as supporting villages to grow their own food.
Noosa resident Anne Kennedy is a Red Cross volunteer based in Dili, and she will make sure the funds raised go directly to the people who need it.
