- April 19, 2024
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East County's Marianne Lopata searches for the perfect ceramic bowl.
Neal Communties' Leisa Weintraub quickly finds a bowl she likes.
Pam Mader and Debby Jotham, of Sarasota, enjoy both the cause and the food.
Deanna Weller, general manager of Truman's Tap and Grill, dishes out clam chowder.
Anna Maria Island's Bruce Meyer, who works at the Lakewood Ranch office of United Way Suncoast, gets bowl of chili from Scott Langdon, of FCCI. "It looked the most filling," he said.
Parrish's Linda Lampe joins Eagle Trace's Chris Love, Rosedale's Debbie Hunt and Peridia's Pam Carlin for a lunch of soups. They all plan to put candy in their souvenir bowls.
Jennifer Newman, of Lakewood Ranch, joins longtime friend Deborah Mosher, of Sarasota, in their annual soup-eating tradition.
Deborah Mosher, of Sarasota, found one of the bowls she painted for the event and chose it as her souvenir bowl.
Debbie Peters, of Venice, chose chili as her main soup.
Neal Communities employees Elise Sturgeon and Danielle Boyers enjoy the morning together.
Persson & Cohen attorneys David Jackson, Maggie Mooney-Portale and Andy Cohen start on samples before figuring out which soups they'll have for lunch.
Panther Ridge's Kevin Clayton and Lakewood Ranch's Joey Scherle, both volunteering with Edward Jones, dish out a pumpkin spice bisque.
More than 300 people attended the Lakewood Ranch event.
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.
