Community Support and Giving

At Mudcraft, community support takes many forms. We bring people together around clay, share our studio resources, and donate handmade work to support local organizations and the people they serve.

The Giving Plates Initiative: Crafting a Culture of Care, One Plate at a Time

A group of people gathered around a table participating in a pottery painting class inside a store, with shelves of bowls and pottery items in the background and snow visible outside the window.

What is a Giving Plate?

A Giving Plate is a handmade ceramic plate meant to be filled with food, shared with someone you care about, and passed along.

Maybe it carries a meal to a friend who needs a little extra care, or maybe it celebrates a birthday or a new home. Maybe it just conveys, I’m thinking of you.

The gesture is simple: receive a plate, enjoy what’s on it, and, if you’d like, fill it and pass it along to someone else. In this way, one small handmade object carries our collective generosity, keeping it moving forward. We think of this gesture as a kind of perpetual potluck in motion.

Sometimes a Giving Plate finds a home where it wants to stay. That’s okay, too!

How the Initiative Evolved

The idea came to Mudcraft in fall 2024, when a client introduced studio owner Lisa Minetti to the concept of a Giving Plate. Lisa was immediately drawn to it. The idea felt like a natural extension of her Plates with Purpose collection, a body of work inspired by the poetry and philosophy of connection.

While selling early Giving Plates at Shelburne Vineyard’s Harvest Festival, a conversation with a local advocate sparked a deeper realization: when facing hardship, people are often placed strictly on the receiving end of care. A Giving Plate disrupts that dynamic, creating space for people on the receiving end of care to later participate directly in the joy of giving back.

That insight transformed the project from a studio product into a community practice, setting in motion our #PlateItForward efforts.

From Plate to Community

Today, these efforts bring neighbors together in the studio and at community events to decorate handmade plates and put them into circulation through local partners. We've worked with organizations including the Colchester Community Food Shelf and Heineberg Senior Center, and brought Giving Plate workshops to events such as the South Burlington Farmers Market and the South End Get Down.

"What I love most about this project is how it makes our goodwill tangible. In my Italian family, we gather around food and share it as a way of showing love, and I feel that same spirit in the perpetual potluck essence of a Giving Plate. Plus, the project has inspired me to learn how to draw cute things.”

— Lisa Minetti, Owner & Teaching Artist

Join Us to #PlateItForward

Table with various craft supplies and informational sheets for a community activity. Items include bottles of glue, a small bowl, printed activity instructions, decorative stickers, and colorful paper with floral and rainbow designs.

Host a Group Workshop

Bring your group together for purpose-driven art making. We host organizations for community service projects and customized fundraising events that support a local cause of your choice.

Partner with us
Artist's workspace with jars of paintbrushes and paint palettes, with colorful drawers in the background.

Sponsor Supplies

Help keep the Giving Plates Initiative going. Your contribution covers the costs of clay, glaze, and firing so handmade plates can keep reaching our neighbors.

Contribute
People sitting at a table painting and drawing on paper plates with colorful designs and words, surrounded by art supplies and paper.

Join a Community Workshop

Gather with us in the studio or at a local pop-up. Decorate a handmade plate to give someone in your own orbit, or to share through one of our nonprofit partners.

Get Updated
  • Decorative plate with a cheerful sun illustration and a message that says "Please Share Your Sunshine."

    Colchester Food Shelf plate

  • Decorative blue and white ceramic plates with floral designs and sayings about the giving plate, including phrases like 'Enjoy me. Fill me. Pass me along. I live for adventure.'

    Mudcraft designs

  • A table showcasing painted decorative plates at a community event with a sign that reads 'The Giving Plates' and mentions making marks on plates to personalize them, with paper plates and paint supplies on the table.

    At the South End Get Down

  • A white ceramic serving plate with the phrase 'Share Me. Pass Me Along' written in black around the rim. The plate has a poem or inspirational message written on it, with a small graphic of strawberries in the center.

    A Mudcraft design

  • A table with art supplies such as paintbrushes, paint, paper plates with paint, and some painted artwork. There are people present, one with tattoos and colorful bracelets, preparing for a painting activity.

    A Mudcraft event

  • A man wearing glasses and a Michigan State shirt holding a decorative plate with a bird illustration and the text "FILL ME, PASS ME AROUND, THE GIVING BIRD" at a table in a room with several people working on arts and crafts.

    A Colchester Food Shelf event

  • Heart-shaped ceramic plates with colorful illustrations of animals and plants, arranged on a wooden table, along with a notepad, pen, and various cups and vases.

    Mudcraft designs

  • A display table outdoors with painting supplies, plates, and informational signs for a community event labeled 'Paint a Plate Help a Neighbor.'

    At the South Burlington Farmers Market

  • People sitting at a table engaging in arts and crafts, painting and decorating paper plates with colorful designs and words related to giving and love, with plates displaying rainbow and heart motifs.

    Heineberg Community Center event

  • Hand-painted decorated rectangular ceramic plates with various colorful floral and abstract designs, arranged on a wooden table.

    Heineberg Community Senior Center Plates

  • A white ceramic plate with a painted flower and black text around the rim that reads, "Fill me up share me. Pass me along. I live for adventure." The plate is being held by a person's hand. In the background, there is a table with bowls and a shelf with various items, all slightly out of focus.

    A Mudcraft design

  • A hand-painted card with a blue vase and pink and green flowers, surrounded by multicolored hearts, with a handwritten message about giving gratitude and love.

    Colchester Food Shelf event

  • Decorative plate with a painted green creature with big yellow eyes, pink spots, and a pink tongue, surrounded by a dark border and a white background.

    Colchester Food Shelf plate

  • Child wearing a gray shirt with a cartoon woman printed on it, painting with watercolors on paper with a dedicated palette in front of her, and paint bottles nearby.

    At the South End Get Down

Donation Requests

Supporting Our Vermont Neighbors

We deeply value the vibrant network of nonprofit organizations working to make Chittenden County and Vermont a better place. Each year, Mudcraft donates a limited number of ceramic pieces and gift certificates for local silent auctions and fundraising events.

Where We Focus

We prioritize local nonprofits working in:

  • Food security & access

  • Arts & education

  • Senior support & care

Graphic promoting the Colchester Community Food Shelf with a sun rising over green hills, wheat stalks, and text that reads 'thank you for your support in feed'.
Colorful logo for Feeding Champlain Valley, featuring a hilltop with vegetables and a bunch of houses with trees and a church, and text indicating the name of the organization.
Green banner with white text reading 'Vermont Italian Cultural Association, Est. 1983'.
Colorful abstract design with overlapping shapes in pink, orange, blue, and green.
Logo with a gold stylized floral or sunburst design above the black text 'Kia'.
Green background with white text that reads 'Heineberg Community Senior Center' and a white floral design.

Our Application

We invite applications that include:

  • 501(c)(3) Tax ID Number

  • Event & Organization Description

  • Promotion Plan

Please apply 6 to 8 weeks prior to your fundraising deadline. We review applications on a rolling monthly basis.

Submit a Donation Request