Hundreds attend event to help feed hungry seniors

ALBANY, Ga. – More than 300 people sipped soup Wednesday to help put food on the tables of hungry senior citizens in southwest Georgia.

Empty Bowls, a joint-effort event between the Albany Area Arts Council and the Southwest Georgia Council on Aging held the event at Albany State University to raise money for the aging council’s mobile food program and the arts council’s programs.

Acillen Watts said this event ensures that seniors feel more secure about how they will get their next meal and know that people still care about them.

“They need to know that they matter,” Watts said. Just because they’ve lived their life and they’ve come of age doesn’t mean that they’re irrelevant.”

Some 300,000 senior citizens in Georgia are hungry, placing the state ninth in the nation for senior hunger and food insecurity.

The Aging Council will use a part of Wednesday’s earnings to provide over 185,000 meals to food insecure seniors in 14 different southwest Georgia counties in 2020.

Local artisans hand crafted the bowls given out during the event, and local restaurants donated the soups.