Riddle: When is an empty bowl full?

Answer: When it holds the good intentions of the child who created it to help end hunger.

One-hundred-and-forty bowls made by island students for Project Empty Bowls will be sold at a soup-and-bread meal at the Bainbridge Commons on Feb. 9, a benefit for the Helpline House food bank.

Guests served soup in a paper bowl may, for a suggested minimum donation, take home a ceramic one.

Potter Jenny Andersen mobilized students at Island, Hyla and Madrona schools. Andersen, who moved to the island in 1980, says her desire to use her artistic skills for social service grew in the wake of 9-11.

“I looked around the world and thought I should try to do something,” she said.

When she heard about Empty Bowls – developed by a Michigan high school art teacher in 1990 for students to raise money for a food drive – she decided to adapt the approach to Bainbridge needs.

The Michigan class project had grown in 13 years into Empty Bowls, to support organizations fighting hunger. Local projects vary widely; many draw on nearby artists, but organizers in Charlotte, N.C. last year put out a call nationwide that turned up 1,000 bowls. Well-known potters donated pieces that were auctioned off.

Projects with students have usually been based in a single classroom, but Andersen’s ambitious approach encompassed three schools and more than 120 kids – although the ceramicist says she initially imagined more.

“I’d intended to do it with all the fifth and sixth grades on the island,” she said, “but that would have been more than 1,000 bowls.”

Last summer, Andersen planned the project with two art teacher friends, Island School’s Peggy Vanbianchi and Hyla’s Laura Jones. Madrona school students were also invited to participate.

“I didn’t want to go into the public schools and only have some kids do it,” Andersen said. “We intend to do it again – when we do, we’ll do it with different students.”

Andersen also turned to Helpline House to organize the project, provide written materials and enlist restaurants.

“Teamwork is the spirit of the whole enterprise,” she said.

Andersen met with each group of students twice in December and January. In the first session, kids draped slabs of clay over “drape molds” of bisque-fired clay in the convex shape of a bowl’s insides.

The uniform beginning ended with wildly different results, however. The bowls are small and large, functional and sculptural. They range from an eggshell-thin elegant minimalist approach to a rococo bowl with edges so scalloped that soup would be superfluous.

On display at Bainbridge Library are bowls with amphora-style handles; floral themes, including one stunner covered with three-dimensional vines; bowls stamped with camels, donkeys, and one with a frog’s round eyes peeking up over the side.

“I didn’t talk about aesthetics,” Andersen said, “but I encouraged them to take their time and do their best work.”

The bowls were fired, then came the pang, for the students, of having to part with them.

“Once they saw their bowls all fired and nice, it was hard to think about giving them away,” Andersen said. “They said, ‘I hope my parents buy my bowl.’”

But the bowls are not on reserve, so it’s first come first served. Photos of the kids making bowls will be on display at the dinner.

The soup is being provided by what Andersen terms “a wonderful army” of island restaurants, including Simon’s Chinese Cuisine, Casa Rojas, Cafe Nola, Ruby’s and Town and Country Market. Islanders William and Alice Beifuss, owners Couer d’Alene French Baking Co., are donating 250 rolls.

Accordion music by Dan Lavry will be the entertainment. The Teen Center kids will hold a peaceful demonstration outside for hunger awareness.

The event is as much about raising consciousness as raising money, organizers say.

“I saw it as a real opportunity for kids to learn that art can be a vehicle for social change,” Andersen said, “and that a small effort from them, sharing their talents, could make a difference, if we did it together as a group.

“It’s been more work than I thought, and it makes me laugh at my initial grandiose idea of 1,000 bowls – but we may get there.”