Canstruction returned Saturday to Lambton Mall with 11 teams building structures from cans and boxes of food that will later help restock shelves at the Inn of the Shepherd food bank in Sarnia.
It was the ninth year for event that had to take the last two years off because of the pandemic.
“We had a rally this morning and had everybody pumped up” before the teams began building at 9 am Saturday, said Myles Vanni, executive director of the Inn of the Good Shepherd.
“We moved all the food in for them last night and it was all stacked for the build today,” he said.
A team from Cope Construction was the first to finish their structure titled “The giving Throne” after two-and-half hours.
Teams had all day to build, with judging set for Sunday, followed by the announcement of the winners at 1 pm at the mall.
“One team has about 16,000 items so I expect they’re going to be 4 pm or beyond,” Vanni said Saturday.
The previous Canstruction in Sarnia featured 16 teams that used and donated more than 40,000 pounds of food.
The structures remain at the mall until April 12 and members of the public can drop cash donations for the Inn at each structure. The team attracting the most in cash donations wins the people’s choice title.
Vanni said six of this year’s team returned from previous competitions and five were new.
The first-time teams included Diversity Ed, a national organization that opened a Sarnia location in September providing a 2SLGBTQ community center along with education for the larger community.
Its team was building an inclusivity pride flag structure from about 1,600 cans of food.
“A lot of our folks from the 2SLGBTQ community are under employed so they often times use the food banks, so we just wanted to make sure we were doing our part to support the community at large and to bring some inclusivity representation,” said executive director Crystal Fach.
“We’re learning why engineers do this,” she said after the structure had an early mishap that left a pile of cans on the floor.
“It was a little hiccup but I think we figured it out,” Fach said. “We’re excited to participate.”
Vanni said he was hopeful of attracting 10 teams after Canstruction’s forced two-year break, so 11 “was perfect.”
This year’s contest theme was “make hunger history” and the entries included “a boat that’s trying to sail-away hunger” as well as other variations, Vanni said.
The about 35,000 food items used this year will be weighed after they are moved to the Inn. “I’m hoping that will be about 28,000 pounds,” Vanni said.
The food bank distributes about 50,000 pounds of food each month.
Canstruction is an international event held at about 200 locations and Sarnia typically finishes in the top 25 for the amount of food collected and money raised, Vanni said.
“It tells you what a great community this is,” he said.
This year’s judging panel includes Damon Bennett who appeared on the Holmes on Holmes TV renovation show and is now living in the Sarnia area, Vanni said.
