Local Potters Craft Soup Bowls to Support the Samaritan Center

Turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. Or perhaps it’s ham, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Whatever the culinary Thanksgiving traditions in a home, the assembled food usually works in tandem, with each flavor complementing the next. Without one item, the whole balance can tip, so care is taken to ensure the menu is complete.

This same care is taken for another autumn tradition in Vero Beach: the annual Soup Bowl fundraiser. From the potters who make the bowls to the chefs who make the soups to those who organize the whole thing, each person is an integral part of the day. For three decades, the Soup Bowl event has supported Catholic Charities’ Samaritan Center, and it is no surprise that it kicks off a season of giving.

The event is always held in the fall, and for many years now the date has been set for the first Thursday in November. Local artist Shotsi Lajoie, one of the center’s founding board members, explains: “Because it is before Thanksgiving, the timing reminds you to think about people less fortunate than you during the giving season.”

She fondly remembers the humble beginnings of the fundraiser, which started shortly after the Samaritan Center’s 1992 opening. The plan featured the community putting an original twist on a traditional soup kitchen. As Lajoie explains, “The theory was to have everyone in the county come eat soup together, and only pay $5 for the soup. It was to show the Vero community that you can take a break, and at the same time respect the homeless and the cause.” The price of the soup has never increased, a fact she wholeheartedly appreciates.

Lajoie also recalls when she and a late friend, former mayor Ken Macht, came up with the plan to include ceramic bowls. Since they took a pottery class together, they decided to make soup bowls to sell at the fundraiser. In the spirit of community, other artists volunteered to help. For the inaugural year, 110 bowls were donated, a precursor to the 1,000 bowls currently donated.

The Soup Bowl event has always supported the Samaritan Center, the first local organization dedicated to helping homeless people by providing transitional housing for families in crises. Once a family is sheltered at the center, they are supported in all facets of life, from meals to financial literacy and counseling.

Renee Bireley, the Samaritan Center’s development manager, is quick to call the center an “ecumenical” effort. Even though it is aligned with the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, several churches, including First Methodist and First Presbyterian, as well as Temple Beth Shalom, have supported the cause from the beginning. In fact, the Samaritan Center’s special events coordinator, Katy Ryan, raves, “So many blessings happen; parishioners from many local churches come together with soup or other donations. There are a lot of moving parts, but it just flows.”

While some of those moving parts are the area churches, others are the local businesses and agencies that open their doors to serve soup and sell bowls. A list of locations is advertised, particularly on social media. Patrons can find places that sell soup, plus the $20 ceramic bowls, as well as those that just serve soup.

Even during COVID, when the fundraiser’s slogan changed temporarily from “Breaking Bread Together for the Homeless,” to “Empty Bowls, Full Hearts,” the community continued its support. The bowls were sold at the Heritage Center, but the soup facet of the event was suspended.

Another major change brought by COVID was that bowl-making moved from Vero Beach Museum of Art to Indian River Clay, a nonprofit ceramics studio founded in 2018 and run by a board of directors and volunteers. For the fundraiser, the studio invites all members, as well as potters and volunteers from the surrounding area, to help make the 1,000 promised bowls. To ensure that the bowl goal is met, sculpting begins in January.

Each bowl either begins on the potter’s wheel or is hand-built. Acknowledging that hand-building takes longer, Maria Sparsis, a founding member of Indian River Clay, says that “a wheel thrower can make 50 bowls a day.”

By August, a menagerie of soup bowls decorate the studio’s shelves, each boasting its own design, pattern, and color. From a vibrant blue bowl stamped with a textured pattern to a bowl adorned with a sculpted mouse on the rim, each one reflects the style and personality of the artist.

Potter Katherine Bauman specializes in hand-building, with a specific interest in coil work. She says, “No matter what piece I make, it will have a coil in it. Picture making snake-like shapes from clay and then coiling it up to make a circular design.” Favoring speckled clay and glazes of robin’s egg blue and white, she creates an average of 25 to 30 bowls per year. Recently, she has begun experimenting with more glazes, even though many Indian River Clay members will say they don’t always know how a bowl will look after it is fired. Reveling in the process, they just inspire one another to be creative.

The communal atmosphere cultivated by potters is just one reason they are the perfect creative partner for the community-driven fundraiser. Another reason, as Sparsis says: “There is a transformative power of clay.”

Just as clay has transformative powers, so does the Samaritan Center. In fact, Bireley likens the journey of a Samaritan Center family to the process of sculpting a bowl. She says, “As the potter works, the clay is shaped, reshaped, and sometimes started over completely, yet always with care, skill, and a vision for what it will become. These bowls are more than art; they symbolize transformation and the value of every individual.”

While the soup bowls are definitely collectors’ pieces, the soup itself is also a tradition. One of the main hubs of the fundraiser is the Heritage Center, because local country clubs each donate at least 5 gallons of soup for the center’s lunch and dinner crowds.

Chef Joe Faria, executive chef at Quail Valley, has donated classic chicken noodle for at least 22 years. He says, “You can’t go wrong with chicken noodle; it’s supposed to cure anything under the sun.” Faria is a big believer in the comforting power of soup, and he loves how it evokes the sense of family. For him, making soup each year is all about giving back to the community.

Giving back is a belief that comes full circle at the Samaritan Center. Just as the broader community comes together for the center’s families, the families must come together for each other. With communal living, they must adhere to the rules that serve their small community. All families participate in chores, which result in spotless living spaces. For the six to nine months they can live at the center, they work together to better their lives and have been known to help each other once they “graduate” as well.

Community will always foster more community, and the ripple effects of this fund-raiser and the work it supports continue for lifetimes, not just decades. The core tradition of the Soup Bowl event has always been to support Samaritan Center families as they learn to sculpt their own life stories.