For the first time since its founding 10 years ago, the Empty Bowls of Denton Luncheon is seeing slack ticket sales.

The fundraiser begins at 11:30 a.m. today at Our Daily Bread, on the first floor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 300 W. Oak St. For $15, patrons can choose a handmade bowl — ceramic or wood — and sit down to a lunch of homemade soup and bread from Ravelin Baking Co.

Proceeds help feed the hungry in Denton through the Denton Community Food Center and Our Daily Bread, the downtown soup kitchen.

DRC/David Minton

Lori Shelton, Jill Waite, Lois Plato, Heidi Thiele, Hannah Waite and Carin Horn hold some of the artisan bowls to be sold at the 10th annual Empty Bowls of Denton Luncheon today. Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit Our Daily Bread soup kitchen and the Denton Community Food Center.

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Lois Plato, a member of the event committee, said there might be fewer people in line for the fundraiser this year. In past years, patrons have had to be turned away at the door thanks to sellout numbers. Organizers hope sales will pick up today at the door. The event runs through 1:30 p.m.

“But you know? I pretty much tell myself that however much we raise, that’s more than we’d have if we did nothing at all,” Plato said.

The annual luncheon is driven by Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, a modest congregation that worships on East University Drive. Feeding the hungry has been one of the church’s biggest and most visible missions. A community garden behind the church has produced thousands of pounds of fresh produce for the food center.

The Empty Bowls project is a simple one: Artists donate handmade bowls, and patrons buy them and have a pauper-style lunch of soup and bread. The bowls are meant to signify hunger.

Members at the Lutheran church gather on Tuesday nights to make, fire and glaze their bowls.

“In our 10th year, we’re trying to get into the community more,” Plato said. “When you’ve been doing something for 10 years, you have to look at ways to keep it energized.”

The project has yielded about 15,000 volunteer hours since it started and has raised about $60,000 for the soup kitchen and food center.

The organization has taken pains to raise community awareness this year, said Jill Waite.

“What happened with the year before was that we had some bowls left over,” Waite said. “In September, our church has a garage sale. … We had some leftover bowls and I asked [the volunteers running the sale] if I could set up a table [of bowls]. People were like, ‘I’ve never heard of this.’”

Waite said that got her thinking about ways to get more people to know about the event.

“It just seemed to make sense for us to get a booth at the [Denton] Arts & Jazz Festival,” Waite said. “I was talking to our board President Monty Naylor about it, and he mentioned that it was cheap to get an informational booth.”

The only catch? They couldn’t sell anything. Vendor booths cost more than information booths at the festival.

“The Golden Triangle Woodturners always have a booth at the festival, and nobody wants to be next to them because of the sawdust,” Waite said.

Generally, nonprofits can’t select their booth plot in Quakertown Park, but when the committee asked if they might be next to the woodturners, they got a spot.

“They’ve been such great partners with us — they’ve turned so many beautiful bowls for Empty Bowls, and people love the wood bowls,” Waite said. “We set up right next to them.”

Waite said she circulated among the fine art booths, and asked artists if she could put up a sign for Empty Bowls in their booths. Most of them agreed.

“We told people who came to our booth that they could buy bowls at the festival and donate them to us for the event,” she said. “We told people: ‘If you find a piece you love but have no place to put them, go ahead and buy it anyway.’”

Waite said they invited people to buy bowls and leave them with the artists. She went to the participating booths to collect them.

“We got a number of bowls that way. I know one person went out and specifically bought nine bowls and brought them back to us,” she said.

A few people said they didn’t want to cross the crowded bridge to buy bowls.

“We were not permitted to solicit money, but some people gave us money and asked us to buy the bowls ourselves. We did that,” she said.

Waite said the project picked up between 30 and 40 artisan bowls at the festival. Everyone who came to the booth was invited to the luncheon.

The committee also sells leftover bowls in the craft fairs at Denton and Ryan high schools. Waite said she made presentations at two local churches. The committee has sent out e-mail notifications reminding people to come to today’s luncheon. Waite also works with local schools.

“What I like so much about dealing with the schools is that we now have kids going from middle school up into high school who know about this and are looking to do this,” she said.

The event includes a silent auction and an anniversary cookbook, Soup & Quick Breads.

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com.

LUNCHEON MENU

Today’s offerings are:

* chicken noodle soup

* sweet potato and sausage soup

* vegetarian lentil soup

* beef barley soup

* sausage chicken gumbo with rice

* fresh bread from Ravelin Baking Co.

BOWL DONORS

Bowls donated by:

* The Golden Triangle Woodturners

* Artist Bill Reed, who “hides” topical and observational messages in each bowl

* Artists Carin and Robert Horn

* Texas Woman’s University Clay Underground

* Denton public school students

* Members and friends of Christ the Servant Lutheran Church

EMPTY BOWLS OF DENTON LUNCHEON

What: fundraising event

When: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. today

Where: Our Daily Bread soup kitchen at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 300 W. Oak St.

Details: $15 per person at the door. One ticket gets one bowl and a lunch of soup and bread. Patrons can buy more than one ticket.

On the Web: http://ctslutheran-denton.org/empty_bowls.html