Students participated in the annual World Hunger Bowl charity event from Nov. 1-16 by creating their own unique bowls for an auction to help homeless hungry people.

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week is held in November according to worldhungerbowl.org. Every year, the City of Laguna Beach Housing and Human Services Committee holds the World Hunger Bowl charity event where bowls created by artists, as well as student artists, were auctioned from Nov. 1-16 online.

This year, 15 student artists from Woodbridge High participated in this event. Some of these students included Kyra Menefee, Amy Park, Maxwell Kent, Sandy Choi, Taisei Mural and Fiona McTieran. All of the students are enrolled in ceramics class.   

“[Students] get a creative piece of work that someone will bid on, and then that money goes toward raising awareness for homeless people and people who don’t have food each night,” ceramics teacher Joe Banner said. “This will let them connect with and help another human being.”

It is rare for students to have the opportunity to use their artwork in a way that can help the less fortunate. The event not only raises money for the homeless, but also helps expose students to ways to aide the less fortunate.

“We would make a bowl of our own unique design, as creative as it can be,” senior Maxwell Kent said. “We blaze it and paint it however we want, and it can symbolize anything.”

Some students created bowls with encouraging quotes inside, some drew children, and others painted their bowls with colorful colors. This way, people who receive the bowl can cheer up when they see the unique and personal quotes and pictures.

“Since this event was held to spread the awareness of homeless and hungry people, I used that as a theme in my bowl instead of just drawing random images,” senior Amy Park said. “I drew a kid with a happy face expression, holding precious water in his hands.”

“This event is really significant because we are having fun while helping out people at the same time,” senior Kyra Menefee said. “Everyone had a fun time making the bowls and being creative, and I think that we should continue doing this in the future because it is for a really good cause.”

The money made from this auction goes to Changing Souls Foundation and the Laguna Beach Homeless Community to aid homeless and hungry people.

“I think that this is a great opportunity and there should be more events like this where students can use their artistic abilities to help other people in need,” Park said.

World Hunger Bowl provides the opportunity for artists and art students alike to showcase their work in a charitable way.