BEATRICE, Neb. - A fundraiser seventeen years in the making took on another year Wednesday afternoon. 

The Empty Bowl Soup Luncheon took place at the Vintage Venue in downtown Beatrice with the goal being to raise funds for the Beatrice Backpack program. Patti Kaufman is a co-coordinator for the luncheon and spoke about the Beatrice Backpack program. 

"We feed kids for the weekend," Kaufman said. "We send home a backpack with an estimate of about five meals to feed their family for the weekend. All these kids are on free lunch and they get free breakfast and lunch at school during the weekdays, but when they go home their cupboards will be bare so this helps supplement their food for the weekend."

Entry was $25 for the event which included a soup lunch. Empty bowls were also on display for the taking to represent the empty bowls of the kids at home that the backpack program is aiming to help. 15 $1,000 sponsors from Beatrice area businesses also took part in the event. 

Kaufman said the goal was to raise around $40,000 in funds from this years luncheon.