26th Empty Bowls Dinner a Success

Mar 26
3 min read

Updated: Mar 31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ19OaPCIMs

The Placerville Empty Bowls Dinner, a cherished community event for 26 years, was held on February 15, 2026. The effort was led by the Hands4Hope Empty Bowls Committee, and the event successfully filled grant requests to support four nonprofit organizations helping to address food insecurity and hunger in El Dorado County and beyond. “In El Dorado County, approximately 10 percent of residents experience food insecurity, meaning they do not know where their next meal will come from. The impact on children is even greater at nearly 12 percent facing uncertain access to the nutritious food they need to learn, grow, and thrive, ” said Sudeep Mazumder, Empty Bowls Marketing/Education Committee Lead, and a junior at Oak Ridge High School, in a speech presented on the night of the event. Co-presenter Ashna Vaikunthan, an Empty Bowls Marketing Committee participant and sophomore at Vista Del Lago High School shared, “Not only are the bowls filled with delicious soup, they also carry a message about the empty plates that exist both in our community and globally. Empty Bowls is not only about recognizing the problem, but also how we choose to respond. Hands4Hope plays a key role in this by empowering youth to lead service projects that respond to community needs. Through youth-led service and advocacy, Empty Bowls highlights the power of young leaders to create significant, lasting change.”

Youth leaders of the committee created an application and invited organizations to apply for funding for their projects that address food insecurity. Upper Room Dining Hall (Placerville), El Dorado High School's Natural Resources Program - Garden Senior Project (Placerville), Hands4Hope Emergency Food Pantry (Placerville), and Earth’s Angels (Ghana) were selected as event beneficiaries. Ultimately, the organizations’ requested grant amounts were fully funded through money raised as part of this event.

Lynn Fedoryk, Empty Bowls Operations Committee Adult Lead Mentor agrees. “My favorite thing about the Empty Bowls dinner is that it allows the community to come together to make a meaningful difference. The thing I am most proud of is how the Hands4Hope youth participants on the Empty Bowls Committee, along with their adult mentors, work together to make it all happen because they care so much about their community. That is so special to me.”

Empty Bowls By the Numbers:

18: middle and high school youth on the Empty Bowls Committee
10: Adult Mentor volunteers on the Empty Bowls Committee
5: subcommittees, each led by a youth participant, to manage different aspects of the event
100: youth and adult volunteers who assisted on the night of the event
1,000: service hours tallied in total by all volunteers and participants