By Katie Lipster, Staff Writer — The school ceramics classes participated in a program in connection with the Akron Canton Regional Foodbank, called the Empty Bowl Project. The project was for the high school students and a class of fifth graders to make bowls to sell at an art fair.

“The school art students have the opportunity to get together and help represent the area by making and selling bowls. The profits go to the food bank,” student teacher David Pluck said.

Pluck, the student teacher for the ceramics teacher Darla Coppa, brought this project to the school when he started his student teaching preparations and observations.

“I agreed to help Mr. Pluck with the bowls because we got an opportunity to help and reach out to the community while giving the students a good learning experience at the same time,” Coppa said.

The school sold about 200 bowls at art fairs in Akron the food bank participated in. About $900 worth of bowls were sold. The Akron Children’s Hospital agreed to match the money raised, equaling $1,800.

“Each dollar raised provides four meals, which really taught the students the value of how much just a dollar can mean to someone,” Pluck said.

The Akron Canton Regional Foodbank was very supportive of the school taking on the project and advertised the events on its websites. The students took time out of their limited class time to make at least a bowl, if not several, to donate about the size of an average cereal bowl.

“You do not think about starving or not having food when you go home to a house full of it. This project helped students to realize that and help the hungry in the community at the same time,” Coppa said.

The overall goal of this project was to help out the food bank and the hungry. The project raised more money than expected and they will be participating in the cause again. The students from the high school and elementary gained a learning experience on how to work to fix problems in their community that are bigger than them.

[Updated Aug. 8, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]