Canstruction Madison: a Community Competition to End Hunger

• published: 17 Jun 2012
• views: 399

Over a thousand people gathered on the evening of May 3, 2012 at the second annual Canstruction® Madison to not only celebrate the completion of 24 structures made of cans and packaged goods but also to celebrate the completion of months of efforts by hundreds of community members to raise what totaled 29 tons of food for the Middleton Outreach Ministry Food Pantry. This amount is equal to over 4,800 grocery bags, far exceeding the initial goal of 25 tons. Canstruction® is a competition where local businesses build incredible, highly imaginative structures out of canned goods and packaged food. Participants in Canstruction® Madison 2012, 22 teams competed for 7 awards which were given to teams in a variety of categories. Area design professionals judged the structures based on a set of criteria. The winners were announced at a ceremony to a crowd of hundreds, all who had entered the event by donating a can of food as a part of a community wide drive. The event addressed the great need for food donations to MOM's pantry. In 2011, Food Pantry usage increased 60% from 2010, and distributed over a ton of food each day the Pantry was open. Use has continued at this rate in 2012. Food pantries also struggle during the summer months. The need for food dramatically increases because children are not receiving free and reduced lunch at school and because our donations decrease as a result of summer travel. Find out more: Canstruction Madison: canstructionmadison.org Middleton Outreach Ministry: momhelps.org Thank you to the 24 participating teams (listed below). The event was presented by the Madison Area Builder's Association and Northwestern Mutual: The Kosnick Financial Group. The site was sponsored by KEVA Sports Center. The "building blocks" of food were also partially sponsored by Capitol Centre Foods, with support from Certco, Inc. Asbury United Methodist Church -- A Light in the Darkness (Winner: Most Nutritious Meals) Capitol Insurance Companies -- Strike Out Hunger (Winner: Structural Ingenuity) CPM -- Finishing First in the Race to End Hunger (Winner: Most Cans) CUNA Mutual Group -- Big and Little Get Hungry, Too Fish & Associates and City of Middleton -- Lifting People Out of Hunger Flad Architects -- Barnyard Bounty (Winner: People's Choice Award) Glacier Creek Builders Club -- Canucopia Integral Building Systems & Morgan Stanley -- Freedom from Hunger Towers J.H. Findorff & Son -- Under CANstruction: Pushing Away Hunger in Our CANmunity Kosnick Financial Group -- Northwestern Mutual -- We "Like" fighting hunger with MOM. MHS Engineers Living inTraining Everyday (E.L.I.T.E.) -- CAN Al Arab Middleton Community Church -- Statue of Liberty on Lake Mendota Middleton Fire Company #1 -- The Hunger Hydrant Park Bank -- The Time is Now! -- One Donation at a Time Patio Pleasures Pools & Spas -- !!!SOUPNAMI!!! Springs Window Fashions -- Great TOOOOOON ...A Catch Students of Globe University -- Stomping Out Hunger (Winner: "Tooned In" Award) Team Walgreens -- Wishing Well Thinking Outside The Can -- Simon (Winner: Best Use of Labels) Wegner CPAs -- Racing to Finish Hunger WTS Paradigm -- Easter Island Head Zingg Design, Inc. -- Delivering Help for Hunger (Winner: Judges' Choice Award)