Local chefs, restaurants and caterers will go bowl-to-bowl for bragging rights this Saturday as the ninth annual Elgin Empty Bowl Souper Bowl returns to Elgin High School, with all proceeds benefiting the Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry. The fundraiser runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 7 at the school, located at 14000 County Line Road.
Admission is $35 for anyone 13 and older and $5 for children ages 6 to 12, according to Community Impact. Competitors will square off in five categories — cream-based soup, broth-based soup, chili, stew and table presentation — while attendees sample the entries and vote for a fan favorite. Beyond the soup, the event will feature a silent auction, a raffle stocked with prizes from local businesses and live music, per a news release cited by the outlet.
A Bowl to Take Home, a Reminder to Keep
Ticket holders 13 and older get to keep a commemorative bowl hand-painted by Elgin ISD students — a detail meant to do more than decorate a shelf. Pantry officials said the empty bowls are intended to remind attendees of neighbors in the community still facing food insecurity, the same report notes.
Tresha Silva, CEO of the Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry, framed the stakes in personal terms. “Every ticket purchased, every bowl of soup tasted and every auction bid placed directly impacts a family in our community,” she said, according to the report. Silva has also called on neighbors to join the effort and help turn empty bowls into full ones.
The Need Behind the Fundraiser
The event arrives as food-insecurity numbers in Bastrop County remain high. A 2025 food-access assessment found that 15,168 county residents experience food insecurity, including more than 5,000 children, Community Impact reported. That same assessment identified Stony Point, Cedar Creek and Elgin as the communities with the highest food-insecurity rates in the county, and found that more than 13,000 unique residents access charitable food programs each month, adding up to roughly 21,000 total assistances.
The same 2025 assessment put the county's food-insecurity rate at 15.4%, noting average annual household food spending of $9,200, the outlet's coverage of Bastrop leaders' efforts to strengthen food access shows. The Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry itself served 5,385 neighbors and distributed 528,036 pounds of food in 2025, according to its own impact report.
A Fundraiser That Adapts Under Pressure
The Empty Bowl Project is one of two annual fundraising events the pantry runs, alongside Bowl'd Strokes Against Hunger, per the pantry's events page. The event hasn't always looked like this year's sit-down gathering. In 2020, the fourth annual Elgin Empty Bowl was reworked into a modified curbside fundraiser, with pantry staff and volunteers handing out 76 bags to drive-up participants on a windy Nov. 11 that year, the pantry recounted. That version swapped the usual in-person silent auction for an online one featuring theme baskets, artisan goods and work from local artists.
This year's event will feature soup tastings, a silent auction and music at Elgin High School for two and a half hours. For a county where thousands of residents rely on charitable food access every month, organizers are betting that a bowl of chili or a cup of broth-based soup can still do real work.
