Massachusetts artist raises $20,000 for food bank, thanks to his homemade wooden bowls

Artist Mike Mittelman has come up with a simple way to raise money for a food bank while honing his woodworking skills.

Through him Bowls for food organizers, Mittelman sends wooden bowls he makes in his garage in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, to people who send receipts showing their donation to a food bank. Since the pandemic began, Bowls for Food has raised more than $20,000 to fight food insecurity across the United States, WCVB report.

Mittelman, who is also a software developer and furniture maker, is passing on his knowledge to the next generation. At the beginning of the pandemic, when his children said they needed to do something, Mittelman told them, “Let’s see if we can accept our boredom and do something about it.” They headed out to the garage, where Mittelman showed them how to make the bowl, explaining how to sand the wood and make it shiny. “It’s really nice to be in this moment, in a really obvious way,” he told WCVB.