This spring’s Empty Bowls fundraiser raised $1,850 for HelpLink on April 8.

Several dozen students and faculty members gathered in the Hawk’s Nest dining hall to purchase $10 bowls of homemade soup.

“I have to recommend what I made,” Kayla Woodyard, a first-year culinary arts student who helped with the cooking, said. “We made lasagna soup. Yeah, it’s pretty good. We put a lot of effort into it.”

Woodyard was part of a 12-student team of chefs who prepared five kinds of soup for the twice-a-year event, including lasagna soup, vegan tortilla and Maryland seafood bisque.

The lasagna soup “has all of the things that I love,” said Michael Levins, the executive chef who teaches cooking techniques in the college’s Hotel, Culinary Arts and Tourism Institute, or HCAT. “It is really the ricotta filling that a lasagna would have, the noodles that are in there. And we also made some basil focaccia croutons to go on top of that.”

Levins’ cooking techniques students prepared the soups, which they served in colorful ceramic bowls.

Levins said the event gave the students a glimpse into a practical application of their new cooking skills.

“So for our students who are not yet working in the industry, a day like today gives them a great preview of what the industry is like,” Levins said. “And I tell the students that this is very much the industry that you’re going into. Just think of service learning as somebody that’s contracting a catering event at the restaurant or hotel that you work at.”

Students received training in class to learn how to interact with the public.

“We take classes that teach us how to be public-facing and serve individuals to the best of our ability,” Woodyard said.

Also present at Empty Bowls were several booths staffed by students and faculty handing out information about health and health professions.