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Hundreds Attend Annual Empty Bowls Event To Help End Hunger

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and Just Harvest have been working together for more than two decades to end hunger in western Pennsylvania.

This weekend, their signature event was held in Oakland.

Eighty gallons of soup, more than 2,000 hand-made bowls and a handful of ladles were featured during the 21st year for Empty Bowls.

"About one-in-seven of our neighbors here in the Pittsburgh area is unsure of where their next meal is coming from, and all of us are working very hard in the community to make hunger a thing of the past," Just Harvest Executive Director Ken Regal said.

"It's really about the coming together of the community to help people who struggle with hunger everyday," Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank President and CEO Lisa Scales said.

More than 1,000 people waited in line for this annual tradition. This year's event was held in Oakland, where Mayor Bill Peduto was happy to help.

The mayor dished out dozens of bowls of corn chowder with meat.

"Not everyone in Pittsburgh gets to go to sleep at night with a meal. Fortunately, we have groups like Just Harvest to be able to help us," Peduto said.

"Empty Bowls helps to change that by raising money by raising awareness, but building a sense of community that it's all of our collective obligation to bring an end to hunger," Regal said.

"What you see behind me is many people coming together from throughout the community from chefs to volunteers to people who are just interested in giving back to people, to their neighbors," Scales said.

Local celebrities participated by making bowls that were auctioned off and thousands of bowls were made by schools, art centers, senior centers -- even Girl Scout troops. Everyone who attended got to take one home as a reminder of the fight against hunger.

"People feel it in their hearts, they feel it in the bellies, they feel it in their heads," Regal said.

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