Celebrating Thanksgiving, the Austin Way

colorful bowls at Thanksgiving Empty Bowl Project in Austin

There’s no shortage of ways to love your fellow man in Austin. Especially around the holiday season, organizations rally to make giving back to the community fun and accessible.

Central Texas Food Bank - Thanksgiving in Austin - Empty Bowl Project

This year Brian and I participated in the Austin Empty Bowl Project which is an effort by Austin area potters to fight hunger. (That actually started in Michigan.)

The concept is simple.

Austin Empty Bowl Project - photo of colorful bowls

Peruse a room full of unique handcrafted and hand painted bowls donated by local Austin potters.

Thanksgiving in Austin at the Empty Bowl Project at Central Texas Food Bank

Pick out one or many and donate $25 to get the bowl and a soup ticket.

De-germify your bowl at the washing station.

Have it filled with your choice of about 15 different soups donated by area restaurants like Thai Fresh, Truluck’s, and The Soup Peddler.

This warm and spicy vegan mulligatawny was donated by The Soup Peddler.

Enjoy lunch and live music inside the food bank with friends and community. Donations go to the Kids Cafe program at Central Texas Food Bank and Meals for Kids, a program of Meals on Wheels Central Texas.

Our friends Alex and Kim who not only invited us to join them on this outing, but who took all the awesome photos and video posted here!

The best part is that this is an annual event. It’s always the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so mark your calendars for next year. 🙂

Got to watch some pottery being made while we were standing in line to get inside.

TIPS:

To avoid a long line – get there early, or get there late! Doors open at 11 so early means coming around 10:15am. If you show up at 11 when we did, you get to wait at the tail end of the line that wraps around the building. It took us around 45 minutes to get in but it was a sunny morning and we had a good time catching up with our friends.

Size doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what size bowl you pick, everyone gets one ladle of soup, so don’t pick a huge bowl just because you’re hungry!

choosing bowls at Thanksgiving Austin Empty Bowl Project

If you see a bowl you like but haven’t seen them all – pick it up and carry it with you until you’re ready to make your decision. There are so many good ones, it’s hard to decide. Luckily, you can buy as many as you’d like and yeah, they all come with soup. 😉

Bowl of artichoke soup at Thanksgiving Austin Empty Bowl Project.

Celebrating Thanksgiving this year will be different for us as we’re doing it up vegetarian style. Seems like bucking tradition is becoming our new tradition!

Enjoy This Article? Subscribe Now!

Get new posts sent directly to your inbox.

I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

2 Replies to “Celebrating Thanksgiving, the Austin Way”

  1. Fun! I did this a few years back but seem to have lost my bowl in one of my many moves since. Guess next year will be the year I replace it!

  2. Yeah, next year! Gotta go early to get the best bowls too. I think they get a bit picked over by the end of the day. 😛

Leave a Reply