PLATTSBURGH — Panha Suon stacked her bowls in the Ceramics Studio at Plattsburgh State.

Some were hand built, and others were thrown on the wheel. They were painted with a variety of glazes and ranged in size.

At Saturday's annual Empty Bowls Supper, a fundraiser for the Interfaith Food Shelf, attendees may select one of the bowls to take home as a reminder of how they helped to eliminate hunger in Clinton County.

"With me, personally, I'm really into community service," said Suon, a junior majoring in art, with a ceramics concentration. "I feel this is a good cause because all the proceeds we are making go to the Food Shelf in Plattsburgh."

Suon began making her bowls in October when professor Berry Matthews gave her advanced-ceramics class an option of participating in this community-service project or choosing one of their own.

"Making multiples of pieces increases their skill in ceramics," Matthews said in a college press release.

"And they enjoy participating in an event that gives back to their community."

Established in 1990, Empty Bowls is a nationwide project developed by John Hartom, a high-school art teacher, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Twelve years ago, Matthews started the event here.

The project's mission is to heighten awareness of hunger globally and locally.

As part of their Learn and Serve America program, Momot and Oak Street elementary schools' fifth-grade classes also created bowls.

On Saturday, attendees will be served a Chartwells meal of soup, bread, beverage and dessert in the Algonquin Dining Hall on Rugar Street.

Suon, a Bronx native, made 15 bowls for the event. She experimented with a new technique of pressing clay onto newspaper to get a textured effect.

"It's fun making bowls. You don't know how the bowl will come out when you glaze it. So it's a surprise."

E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com