Each year, the Open Door Soup Kitchen serves 20,000 meals to Haywood County’s hungry, prepares an average of 60 take home food boxes per month, and provides warm showers and a change of clothes for those applying for a job — all at no cost to those in need.

The soup kitchen is open every day of the week, with a rotating staff of 150 volunteers from throughout the community. The volunteers’ hard work and dedication — cleaning, cooking and soliciting donations — helps keep the kitchen’s costs down; however, with an annual operating budget totaling more than $100,000, help is always needed.

The kitchen is funded largely by private donations from individuals and area civic organizations as well as grants, but the annual Empty Bowl Dinner represents a unique opportunity to connect with the community and contribute to the cause.

“The Empty Bowl is probably the largest single fundraiser that we have,” said Open Door Director Perry Hines.

The Empty Bowl Dinner is an annual event in which area potters make and donate soup bowls that are sold for $15 each, with proceeds going to the Open Door. The event, held from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at the Open Door on Commerce Street, provides funds the soup kitchen uses as part of its general operating budget. In other words, the goal is not to purchase a specific item or accomplish a pre-designated task, but to keep the Door open.

For their $15 donation, bowl buyers also receive a bowl full of soup, cornbread and a drink — forget you break it, you buy it, here it’s eat from it before you leave with it.

Local potters Phillip Johnston and Bob Hammock, who own and operate Mud Dabber’s Pottery and Crafts and The Good Earth studios, respectively, conceived the idea for the Empty Bowl Dinner four years ago.

“Definitely it was the initiative of the potters,” Hines said. “They came to us and said they’d like to help.”

The concept, modeled after similar programs across the nation, uses the arts to promote social consciousness.

“It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Empty Bowl participant Kaaren Stoner, who owns Twigs and Leaves Gallery on Main Street in Waynesville with her husband, David Erickson. “I can use my skills and my talents to help raise money for the soup kitchen, another way of volunteering since I can’t give up my time to go down there and help.”

The response to the Empty Bowl Dinner has been overwhelmingly positive, with participants — both as potters and soup eaters — steadily growing. Last year, the event raised $7,800 for the Open Door. This year, organizers are hoping to break that record with more than 25 potters having donated 600 bowls, Johnston said.

Each of the bowls is a unique, handmade creation, varying in size, shape, color, and style. An Empty Bowl participant since the event’s inception, Stoner uses the opportunity to play with her art.

“I always use the opportunity to run some experiments like different glaze combinations and some old decorative techniques I haven’t used in a long time,” said Stoner.

Carry-out meals for the Empty Bowl Dinner are available, and those who are unable to attend still are encouraged to get involved by becoming volunteers.

“We’re tremendously blessed, but we always have an open door for others,” Hines said of his staff.

Volunteers particularly are needed from the area’s minority groups.

“We want to extend ourselves in a stronger way to the black and Hispanic communities to reach more clientele,” Hines said.

Donations may be made in the form of money or food. Items are best when donated in bulk, though singular foods — a can of peas, spaghetti sauce and noodles, canned tuna — can be packaged together in the take home packages the Open Door provides. The greatest need is for meats, such as hot dogs, turkeys, or beef roasts.

To volunteer or for more information call 828.452.3846. Monetary donations may be mailed to The Open Door at 32 Commerce Street, Waynesville, N.C., 28786.