Lakewood Ranch fills up on soup, charity

Lakewood Ranch’s Jennifer Newman might not have wanted the bowl she painted for The Food Bank of Manatee’s Empty Bowls fundraiser, but her longtime friend Deborah Mosher clapped with excitement over finding her pineapple-themed dish.

“I painted this and I was able to get it. How cool is that?” said Mosher, as the pair sat eating soup  Nov. 3 at Main Street at Lakewood Ranch. She pulled out a plastic bag and unwrapped the paper-clad dish. “I dated it on the bottom.”

The other one she’d decorated with shrimp during a ceramic bowl painting party at Renaissance on Ninth last month had been selected by someone else. She would not have picked it anyway. Newman didn't want hers either.

“I left it for someone else,” she said with a chuckle. “I have limited artistic abilities.”

More than 300 guests attended the fundraising event, at which they ate a meal of bread and soup — choosing anything from lobster chowder to Southwestern chili and even a pumpkin spice bisque, among others — and selected a hand-painted ceramic or wooden bowl as a souvenir. Bowls had been painted for the event throughout the year.

Proceeds benefited The Food Bank of Manatee, which provides food and other goods for distribution to food pantries and other agencies that serve the area’s families in need. It is operated by Meals and Wheels PLUS of Manatee.