Students, faculty and staff helped raise $1,875 for AACC’s HelpLink Wednesday by buying $10 bowls of soup and chowder prepared by students of the college’s Hotel, Culinary Arts & Tourism Institute.
Students in instructional specialist Randy Stahl’s Hotel/Restaurant Management 123 course collaborated with the Sarbanes Center for Career and Civic Engagement on the fundraiser, which added to the school’s emergency aid program.
“There is some emergency funding that goes on and HelpLink is the coordinator of all of that,” Stahl, a chef, said. “The least that we can do is to put money into our student population.”
Empty Bowls is a national fundraiser created by ceramic bowl artists who connected with community chefs. It was brought to AACC in 2014 as a service learning opportunity. Last semester, the AACC fundraiser collected $1,643 for HelpLink.
Service Learning Coordinator Tresa Ballard said the most the event ever raised was $3,340.51 in fall 2023.
HelpLink offers temporary financial assistance to students who need help paying for housing, child care, food, living expenses, medical bills, transportation or textbooks.
Culinary students served three soups: Mulligatawny, New England style seafood-and-corn chowder and French-style onion soup with shredded duck meat.
Loki Murphy, a third-year plant science student, said the soup is “always delicious.”
“I enjoy going every time,” Murphy said. “The bowls are cute. And on top of that, it is a charity event, so why not?”
Each participant kept a bowl as a souvenir.
Murphy recommended the food to other students.
“I kind of wish there were more events like this, because it really is delicious,” Murphy said.
Leo Klappenberger, a first-year biology student, agreed.
“I think it is an excellent opportunity, not only to try a bunch of the different types of soups from different cultures, but also to then be told about what the soup is,” Klappenberger said. “And you know, you can support stuff. … There’s places to donate and help out.”
