UCLA Arts’ 2nd Annual Yummy Bowl Benefit Smashes Fundraising Goal
On Thursday, May 18, the benefit occurred at the UCLA Broad Art Center plaza
On a sunny Thursday afternoon, the Broad Art Center plaza is abuzz with people admiring a bevy of handmade bowls and enjoying a delicious meal. It is the 2nd Annual Yummy Bowl Benefit.
The fundraiser invites students, staff, and faculty to make ceramic bowls to raise money for UCLA’s Community Programs Office (CPO) Food Closet. With a donation, attendees can select any bowl, which was then filled with a vegetarian lunch provided by Lulu, the restaurant at the Hammer Museum.
The Yummy Bowl Benefit was created by UCLA Department of Art professors Candice Lin and Anna Sew Hoy. In 2022, the two artists launched the inaugural fundraiser after learning that over 40% of UC students reported being food insecure.
“I first became aware of food insecurity among UC students in my first quarter teaching at UCLA when a student, Nieves Winslow, made an installation about the issue,” says Lin. “Nieves interviewed friends and peers about their experiences and then had the audio embedded into sculptures. It was a very powerful piece. I then researched the issue and learned about the CPO Food Closet and started brainstorming how we could support this organization.”
Lin was inspired to create a community-generated fundraiser after her experience as an artist-in-residence at Pitzer College.
“[Pitzer] had an event called Empty Bowls, and it seemed really popular and successful, so I suggested we could do something similar,” says Lin.
Sew Hoy, however, wisely wanted the event name to have a less negative connotation. “Anna thought we should call it something more positive since the bowls aren’t empty but are filled with yummy food donated by Lulu and are raising funds to keep students’ metaphorical bowls filled. So she came up with the idea of calling it Yummy Bowl.”
But the fundraiser isn’t without its challenges. “Our ceramics area at UCLA is more sculpture-focused, although students do also learn wheel-throwing, and we only have one class that is devoted to wheel, so bowl-making is not embedded into the curriculum,” says Lin. “I always worry we won’t make our goal of 350 bowls.”
Thankfully, this year’s benefit smashed expectations. Students, staff, and faculty made a total of 480 bowls, and with a fundraising target of $6,600, the Spark campaign raised $10,281, exceeding the goal by 55%.
“It was heartening to see that, even after we pre-sold all of the bowls, people still wanted to donate–even if they didn’t receive a bowl,” says Lin. “It makes me really hopeful and happy that this event can help raise awareness about the food insecurity issue and the good work the CPO is doing.”
The future is bright for Yummy Bowl. Lin is already looking ahead with ways to better support the event’s volunteers.
“In the future, maybe we could have a button for donors to buy a yummy bowl for a student volunteer. Both this year and last year we had student volunteers who donated five hours of their time–helping with the event and making bowls–but could not afford to participate even though they really wanted to,” says Lin.
Yummy Bowl highlights the compassion and creativity of UCLA while also shedding light on this pressing issue. The goal of artists is often to nourish the soul, but Yummy Bowl has provided an opportunity for ceramicists to nourish the body.
“I’m excited for future Yummy Bowls and the enthusiasm this event has gotten from students and the wider UCLA community,” says Lin. “We plan to keep on going with it!”
Photos by Lauren Villanueva, UCLA Arts Photographer in Residence.
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