KC Counts talks with Jan Archey, Potters Guild of Las Cruces Empty Bowls event chair, and Steven A. Chavira, executive director of El Caldito Soup Kitchen, about Friday's fundraiser, which takes place at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Las Cruces from 11-2. Find a link for more information below this transcript:
KC Counts:
Jan, how many Empty Bowls events have you been involved in?
Jan Archey:
I've been involved since we began and had our first Empty Bowls event in 1993.
KC Counts:
How wonderful. How can you tell me how it's changed over the years?
Jan Archey:
Well, sadly, we just make more bowls because the need is not less. I have to say that the quality of the bowls always has stayed well. The nice thing from the first early years to now is we have El Caldito pulling a lot of the weight because in the beginning we facilitated soups being delivered there and donated. And now it's a real team effort with El Caldito doing a lot of the publicity and helping out and providing the food in that part of the event while we provide the art part in the bowls.
KC Counts:
Is this something that potters get excited about as the event grows near? I can see there's like a little bit of rivalry amongst the potters as to like whose bowls for empty bowls are the best bowls.
Jan Archey:
No, there's never a bad bowl because there's always somebody who loves it. So Even what I call the dog bowls have a home. I'm real proud of the Potter's Guild feeling very compassionate about this event because we know we're contributing to the community. Very few art groups have a program like this that are contributing as much as we do.
KC Counts:
What does it take to create the amount of bowls that you need? First of all, what's that number?
Jan Archey:
We strive to have 1,500 and I can't tell you right now what we have. This year's kind of been crazy and normally I run a tally but last year we had 1,732 and we had about 400 maybe left over. They were not bad bowls. It's just that They did not get out of the boxes and or the right person didn't see them. So the third I need to share with you that St. Paul's United Methodist Church has been the third partner in this and our empty bowls event has been successful because we have not changed venues. Whereas in Albuquerque they have empty bowls as well. There's a small one in Deming, Silver City and other surrounding areas. But we have stayed in the same place and that has made our event grow.
KC Counts:
All right, so what kind of investment is made on the part of the Potter's Guild to create all those bowls?
Jan Archey:
Well, it's all time. And we figure by the time we get through, we're moving over a ton of materials. And we have to have clay. And so some of that clay is donated by New Mexico Clay in Albuquerque. Peter Palos at Las Cruces Clay donates his recycle, and then the guild buys clay. So it takes a lot of clay. So if the clay on average takes a pound and a half, and we want to make 1,500 bowls, you can do the math.
KC Counts:
No, I can't.
Jan Archey:
Yeah, so what happens is we have workdays, people come and they make bowls, and at those workdays we hope we can make 100 or 200. So those work days are held at the Dona Ana Community College Ceramic Studio on Nevada Street, New Mexico State University, and Las Cruces Clan Studio each have work days. And a lot of our bowls, those are community bowls, and 18 pairs of hands may touch those before they're sold to the public. And so those are truly empty bowls, community bowls. And then we have private studios and individuals who make a commitment to make 50 bowls or 100. and that's their personal goal and they do it every year. So it's a lot of generosity on behalf of the potters of doing this and making it successful. Above that is a silent auction that we have and artists donate to that and that opened today on mesillavalleyestatesales.com. At Empty Bowls, we have Wine and Dine, which is a bottle of wine in a gift card at a restaurant. So it's a date bag. You grab your brown bag and hope you get the good wine and the nice meal.
KC Counts:
And the good date.
Jan Archey:
Yeah. And then there's an area of specials because we as artists make stuff that maybe didn't turn out like we thought, but it's perfectly fine. And so a lot of wonderful art gets sold that way that all goes to Empty Bowls.
KC Counts:
Now, for someone who's curious about learning how to create pottery, what would you suggest they do?
Jan Archey:
Well, there are classes. We do have community work days. And if people contact me, there are certain work days where we actually will walk people through making slab bowls, which were equally just as pretty. They use a mold, roll out a piece of clay, much like you would a pie, and then shape it and alter it and decorate it. And then those bowls are fired the first time. And then the guild has a pallet of glazes and we have a glaze day and we glaze all those. And this year they were farmed out to a local ceramic artist and she did all the firing of the glaze of those bowls in particular. The high fire bowls I do at the Dona Ana Community College and then NMSU also fired some bowls for us. So I mean it takes certainly a tribe to pull this off, you know?
KC Counts:
No doubt. And Steve, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about what it does for El Caldito.
Steven A. Chavira:
Well, the first thing that it does and the main thing that it does is it provides, since we are the beneficiary of the event, it provides money that goes directly towards helping us feed hungry people in Las Cruces. It brings the community together. I would say that the 4th partner in this event is the community. because without them we could not do it all. And it really spreads a lot of goodwill and feeds a lot of people. Every ticket that is sold we calculate feeds about 7.5 meals.
KC Counts:
Nice. You know we've been covering food insecurity in the region quite a bit lately and you know I'm wondering if the challenges that other folks who are in this work are similar to what challenges you might be facing at El Caldito in terms of just access to food and what you can get.
Steven A. Chavira:
Yeah, well, food insecurity is real and like Jan says, the need is great and it's getting greater. We have the challenges that we have to face for the people that are facing homelessness, facing hunger, And not all of my clients are homeless, not all of them are drug addicted or have mental issues, but every single one of my clients is hungry. There are more hungry people coming out, especially as the Community of Hope grows and we bring more people onto the campus, more people are coming in. But we can only serve the people that come to us. And that's the challenge. So eventually we'll be looking at some outreach and trying to get further out into the community because that number of hungry people has got to go down.
KC Counts:
What would you say at El Caldito are some of the things that you've seen change during your time there?
Steven A. Chavira:
Well since I've been there, before I got there, I was the first executive director in the 40 years that El Caldito had existed. My role was to sort of modernize our operation, make it more formal and not as much board run as it had been. So we've changed some processes. We've changed some of the ways that we're doing things, brought in some key players onto our team, which allows us to get further out into the community, bring more businesses in, and create more awareness for what it is that we're trying to do.
KC Counts:
And so what message would you like for people to have about El Caldito, the work you're doing, and what you're hoping to get back from the community?
Steven A. Chavira:
Well, it's just like my shirt says today, we feed people, but we nourish souls. When you come and volunteer at El Caldito, no matter what the capacity is, you walk away with a really strong sense of what it does to your soul, giving back to the community. Our clients are very, very gracious. So I would say what I want them to know is that we're here, we're not going anywhere, and my volunteers are my army, and the more volunteers I get, the more people we can serve.
KC Counts:
Well, let's talk about this year's empty bowls and still tickets available, I presume.
Steven A. Chavira:
Absolutely.
KC Counts:
Is this something that sells out or can sell out or?
Steven A. Chavira:
I would love it too.
KC Counts:
Can we accommodate everyone?
Jan Archey:
We have not run out of bowls yet.
KC Counts:
Okay.
Jan Archey:
If we make bowls after the event for the people that were bowl-less. But no, I think we want you to come on Friday. It's October 9th, Friday from 11 to 2. St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 225 West Griggs. Yes. You'll see us. Parking is going to be very easy this year. All the workers are parking and they will hike in. So the patrons can have easy parking.
KC Counts:
I see. And what types of meals are going to be available?
Steven A. Chavira:
I'm glad you asked that because one change that we've done from years past is that we've gotten more involvement from the local restaurants. But we've gotten probably 50 of the local restaurants to contribute soup and bread or bread. And we will have probably 45, 48 different soups available on that day. So we've got a great choice of vegan or vegetarian meals.
KC Counts:
And I only have three hours to try them all.
Steven A. Chavira:
That's right. But we're going to have albondigas, we're going to have pozole, we're going to have all kinds of great things. And you know what I love about this is that you can come in, get the soup you like, and find your favorite restaurant, and then go try another one in addition. It's kind of all you can eat. So we are excited. We will not run out of soup and any soup that we have left over we serve to our clients.
KC Counts:
Is that a challenge?
Steven A. Chavira:
That is a challenge. My goal is for us to sell out. My goal is to get the Potter's Guild to do the after event bowls. But my goal is to just get all the soup gone and all the bowls gone.
KC Counts:
Anything I've missed that either of you would like to add before I let you go?
Jan Archey:
I would like to say that we are deeply appreciative to the way the community has reached out and supported this event over the years. And KRWG has been a supporter from the very beginning. We thank you.
KC Counts:
Well, thank you.
Steven A. Chavira:
Yeah.
KC Counts:
Thank you both for coming in and sharing this time with us. I think maybe you had something on your mind.
Steven A. Chavira:
No, I was just going to mirror what Jan said, but I want to thank the restaurants who come to the table literally and help us with the soups. We have different way now of recognizing our restaurants so everybody will see who they are and hopefully be able to thank them in person after the event.
KC Counts:
All right, thank you very much both of you for being with us and bon appetit.
Find more information on Friday's fundraiser right here.
