Potters and soup makers in the Baltimore area have been busy churning out the goods for Empty Bowls events slated for Friday and Saturday nights at the College of Notre Dame in North Baltimore.

The potters have been shaping or decorating about 1,800 bowls. These brightly colored vessels will be claimed by folks who hold a $15 ticket to Saturday night's Souper Supper or a $75 ticket to the Friday night Golden Ladle reception. Proceeds from both events go to St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, a faith-based organization that works to eliminate hunger and homelessness.

Chefs from 25 area restaurants have been refining recipes for the soups - including Maryland crab and French green lentil with grilled portobello mushrooms - they will ladle out to attendees.

The soups will be served in disposable 8-ounce vessels, not in the decorative ceramic bowls. "I made that mistake once, serving the soup in ceramic bowls at an Empty Bowls event in Pittsburgh, " said Sue Elias, director of volunteer resources for St. Vincent de Paul in Baltimore. "You end up washing all the bowls."

The protocol is that attendees work their way around Notre Dame's Doyle Hall selecting one of the ceramic bowls on display and sampling as many of the soups as they wish.

This is the fourth year that Baltimore has held an Empty Bowls event, which last year raised about $60,000, she said. The idea for this type of fundraiser was started in 1990 by a Michigan high school art teacher who was looking for a way to raise money for a food drive. There are Empty Bowl events scattered throughout the United States, each donating proceeds to the fight against hunger and homelessness, according to the Web site run by Imagine Render, a nonprofit organization based in Burnsville, N.C., that sanctions Empty Bowl events.

The Baltimore event is scheduled to fall during Lent, a penitential season, Elias said. The act of taking home an empty bowl is meant to remind people of the fight against hunger. "It is not just about making a pretty bowl; it is about directly helping people in need," Elias said.

The bowls are the handiwork of a variety of workers, some highly skilled, some novices. Groups buy plain bowls, then gather at paint-your-own-pottery shops to decorate and finish them, Elias said. She estimated that students from 20 area schools have donated bowls this year.

Artists enjoy donating their work, said Toby Rivkin, who rounds up bowls for the event from fellow members of the Potters Guild as well as from her students at Roland Park Country School, where she teaches French and ceramics.

"I like the idea of making art to help people. I love to work on the wheel," Rivkin said in an e-mail. "How cool is it to attend an event where people you don't know choose your bowl to take home? It's instant gratification for the artist."

The bowls, Elias said, range from exquisite beauties to those made by youngsters "that only a mother could love." Nonetheless, people who attend the event often take a long time choosing their bowl, she said. Children often prowl the room searching for the one that they made, she said.

On the food side, some adults try to sample all the soups being served, she said. As Elias and her colleague, Teresa Eaton, looked over the list of offerings, they recalled the crowd favorites from other years.

The roasted jalapeno and corn chowder always goes fast, as do the sweet potato bisque and the chicken and seafood gumbo. But while the spicy Korean seafood stew and Moroccan chickpea chowder have some devoted followers, other soup samplers find them too hot for their palates.

For the soup makers, Empty Bowls presents a challenge to come up with something creative, said Mick Kipp, a local caterer and Whiskey Island spice maker who coordinates donations from area restaurants. "The chefs don't just make the same old chicken noodle or tomato soup; instead, they really reach and come up with a soup unique to their establishment," Kipp said, adding that he and others usually sample eight to 10 soups at the event.

If you go Empty Bowls Golden Ladle Reception

7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday

College of Notre Dame Doyle Hall, 4701 N. Charles St.

Tickets: $75

Empty Bowls Souper Supper

3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday

College of Notre Dame Doyle Hall, 4701 N. Charles St.

Tickets: $15, children 5 and younger admitted free

Advanced ticket sales: go to vincentbaltimore.org, and click on events link or call 410-662-0500, ext. 216.