Almost three years ago Phillip Calkins helped start Benton County Empty Bowls in an effort to begin a quest to fight hunger in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri. Calkins is now asking for help to ensure the organization's mission continues.
"I'm 78 years old and, like any 78-year-old, I have medical issues," he said Sunday while manning the Empty Bowls booth at the Bella Vista Farmers and Makers Market. "I'm getting the feeling that when I pass away this will pass away with me and I don't want that to happen. I'd like to find someone who can continue on the efforts and work."
Calkins, a retired CPA who still does some accounting work on the side, started Empty Bowls in northwest Arkansas two and a half years ago as a 501c3 along with David Johnson. Heather Grills and Marla Wright are also integral parts of the non-profit organization and others have since been added to its board.
"We pass on 100% of what we bring in," Calkins said. "The money we get from the sale of the bowls ... in the last two and a half years I've passed on over $56,000. That's 2,500 bowls and enough to buy like half a million meals."
Calkins started working with clay by making bonsai pots "because that's my hobby," he said.
He was asked by Johnson to help get Benton County Empty Bowls off the ground as a vehicle for fighting hunger.
"Dave Johnson, who is our main potter, came to me and said, 'You want to help me start this empty bowls?'" Calkins recalled. "He said because I was a CPA I knew all the 'legal smeegal stuff' and I said, 'Yeah.' I've worked with a lot of non-profits and so I helped set all that up and basically run the thing while he gets the potters to donate the bowls."
Johnson, who owns and operates Bear Hollow Pottery in Pineville, Mo., is also on the board of directors of the Village Art Club, Inc., also known as the Artisan Alliance of Wishing Springs, which owns and operates the Wishing Springs Art Gallery. In May of 2019 he helped turn the small building behind the gallery into The Clay Studio. Grills, who was closing her pottery business, donated her equipment and The Clay Studio became the "headquarters" for Empty Bowls, which serves six counties in Arkansas and Missouri.
"A lot of the bowls are made at the clay studio at Wishing Springs Art Gallery," Calkins said. "Dave makes a lot of them at his studio in Missouri and there are a couple other potters who make them at their own studios and donate them."
There are two styles of bowls, one selling for $25 and the other for $20. Calkins told one customer on Sunday at the market that the bowls are "oven proof, microwave proof and dishwasher proof, but they're not child or husband proof."
The empty bowls movement started 30 years ago when a high school ceramics teacher in Michigan challenged his students to do make a bowl, sell it (along with something to go in it, like soup) and use the money to help feed those who were hungry.
"It's taken off worldwide," said Calkins, "and it's all made up of separate 501c3s all over the world."
When asked if he ever thought Benton County Empty Bowls would grow to be as big as it has in under three years, Calkins said, "No, I didn't. Most of the empty bowls organizations around the country or around the world ... it's a once-a-year event or a soup event. That's how we started the first couple of years with just a soup event. You buy a bowl and have a dozen different soups to choose from. That's how we started. Then covid hit us and so I started the website. I've had over $12,000 in website sales. We ship anywhere in the country for free."
Besides free shipping, the organization offers local delivery by volunteers on all orders according to its website.
Calkins said Empty Bowls has helped itself by setting up a booth at the market, adding sales of cookbooks and T-shirts and hosting an ice cream event in July to go with the group's November soup event.
"We changed our theme," he said. "We started coming to the Farmers Market and we also have an ice cream event in July. People are hungry every day. Hunger doesn't stop, so neither will we."
Calkins emphasized the fact that where those involved with Empty Bowls are concerned, "nobody gets a salary, nobody is making money." Materials for the bowls are paid for out of the potter's own pocket. In the rare case when a potter needs funds to purchase materials, Calkins said the money is given from the donations given to Empty Bowls, as well as from the proceeds from sales of merchandise.
"Even the 5% fee they charge me here (for booth space) at the market we pay through donations and from sales of our cookbooks and T-shirts," he said. "A lot of the potters don't ask for anything. But to be honest, it only costs $2 in actual materials to make one bowl. So if they'd like to, we'll cover that for them. But, there again, we cover that through the donations and sales of our books and shirts."
Calkins said it is imperative that Empty Bowls finds one person -- or possibly two if the responsibilities could be divided -- to help the organization keep fighting hunger after he steps down.
"It's more than just making a bowl," he said. "I do our tax returns, checking, taking care of the money part of it, organizing and selling bowls at various events. I don't know if they might split that up and have two people fill that spot or not, I just know we'll need someone. But it's a volunteer work.
And a work that is evidently very rewarding.
"It's given me purpose," Calkins said.
There are several ways to contact Benton County Empty Bowls for those who may be interested in helping the organization. Those ways include:
Email address: [email protected]
Website: bentoncountyemptybowls.org
Calkins' phone number: 616-340-5528
Calkins' email address: [email protected]