You can fill up your bowl and warm your soul at the same time.

That is the type of impact Friday’s Empty Bowls fundraiser can have on individuals and the entire community.

A national event that has been a great success here locally the past seven years, Empty Bowls is truly about raising awareness, helping those in need and bringing the community closer together.

Each year new partners rise to the challenge and this version is no different.

Volunteers will host the event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday in the basement of First Presbyterian Church, 130 Windridge Drive, in Winchester.

Participants pay $15 for a handmade bowl filled with a basic vegetarian soup recipe and a piece of homemade bread, and then dine together as a community. After the meal, the bowls are cleaned and given back to diners to provide a constant reminder of the need for food and what they did to make a difference.

All funds from the event will go to Clark County Community Services. Any soup left over from the meal will be given away.

Designed to raise awareness as much as money, the Empty Bowls campaign began 25 years ago in North Carolina and has impacted millions of people since.

The effort has always been — and continues to be — a true community initiative.

Locally, the event was started by Joe Molinaro, a professor emeritus of Ceramics at EKU. For the Winchester event, Molinaro has passed the torch to former students Carvel and Ashley Norman, owners of Dirty South Pottery on Main Street. They are hard at work creating the bowls.

Molly Stotts, of My Father’s Garden, will be baking bread for the event. The JROTC class from George Rogers Clark High School will also join other volunteers to make sure it is a positive experience for everyone.

So, make sure to put Empty Bowls on your lunch calendar Friday. We promise you will walk away full in ways that a simple meal cannot accomplish.