Here’s how many meals the Empty Bowl Luncheon plans to provide to North Georgians in need

The Empty Bowl Luncheon, the Georgia Mountain Food Bank’s signature annual fundraiser, is set for noon Friday, Sept. 15, at the Ramsey Conference Center on the campus of Lanier Technical College in Gainesville.

Building on the theme “Growing the Love,” the event aims to fund meals for individuals and families across Hall, Dawson, Forsyth, Lumpkin and Union counties.

Last year’s sold-out luncheon, which returned in person following a two-year virtual format, raised upwards of $217,000 to provide nearly 1.1 million meals.

As the love grows, so does the need.

According to Interim Executive Director Rebecca Thurman, a strategic plan developed in 2021 had the food bank positioned to begin distributing 6 million meals annually by 2027, “but with the population and need increase, we actually hit it this past fiscal year.”

The luncheon, likewise, has experienced “exponential growth,” moving from about 60 tables at First Baptist Church of Gainesville to the Ramsey Conference Center, where it has reached capacity at 98 tables, or roughly 1,000 guests.

“Raising awareness is a lot of what we do, not just getting food into those hands, and this is a big part of that,” Thurman said. “Having a thousand people be your advocate in the community is very powerful.”

Thurman noted a second Georgia Mountain Food Bank-hosted event may be added in the future to accommodate the growth.

Tickets to this year’s Empty Bowl Luncheon are $50 per person and can be purchased online at gamountainfoodbank.org/empty-bowl.

Sponsorships ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 are also available. Forms can be found on the Empty Bowl webpage.

Along with their meal — build-your-own protein bowls this year as opposed to the typical soup and salad — attendees will receive a hand-painted bowl to take home “as a reminder of the empty bowls we are working together to fill in our community.”

During the live celebrity bowl auction, attendees can bid on hand-painted bowls signed by big names in business, sports and entertainment, including Lee Brice, Trace Adkins, chef Alton Brown and Atlanta Falcons players of the past and present.

A silent auction will also take place, to which community members can donate items until Aug. 31.

Also during the event, the food bank will recognize its volunteers via the presentation of the Philip Bond Sartain Individual Volunteer of the Year, James A. Walters Corporate Volunteer of the Year and Mike Banks Reflections of the Heart awards.

The food bank is in the midst of a capital campaign and warehouse expansion — a $4.6 million project that, slated to wrap up this fall, will afford the food bank about 12,000 additional square feet while doubling its cooler space.

The food bank is also about to roll out a mobile market program targeting food deserts where access to grocery stores and food pantries is limited.

An expansion of the food bank’s neighborhood fresh program, which primarily distributes produce, the mobile market is a client-choice pantry that, housed inside a refrigerated walk-in trailer, will be hauled to rural areas for individuals to select food items suited to their dietary and cultural preferences.

“People in low vehicle access areas (with) low transportation and limited grocery stores, they need more than just produce,” Thurman said. “We can just take that trailer and park it somewhere for a couple of hours and fill that need without having to have a brick-and-mortar location.”