Doing (Canned) Good

Know what’s more fun than building blocks? Cans! This February, teams from the Belton area competed in Belton’s Second Annual Canstruction® Competition, held at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor’s Mayborn Campus Center. Using their creativity, architectural design skills and a minimum of 1000 cans, each team built an original sculpture. Visitors then donated additional dollars to vote on their favorite creations.

Developed in New York City in 1992, Canstruction has contributed more than 15 million pounds of food to community food banks around the world. This year, the Belton event raised more than 28,000 cans or 25,000 pounds of food for the Helping Hands Ministry, the local food pantry. First Choice Power was the lead sponsor for the entire weekend, as part of our Food First program to fight hunger here in Texas.

First Choice Power employee LaShanda Babbs attended the Canstruction Gala & Awards Dinner and was blown away by the builders’ engineering and creativity.

“All of the can displays were phenomenal,” LaShanda told us. “One especially stood out to me. It was a heart of cans with a hole in it, and a beaming light was glowing from inside of this hole. It was truly moving. The display was made with over 3,100 or more cans of food that will, of course, all be donated. Another display was built using over 5000 canned goods. There was an incredible amount of effort and personal time to put these displays together.”

Congratulations to everyone who took part, especially to our Food First partner Helping Hands who will take this event and turn it into thousands of meals for those in need

To see pictures of the sculptures or get information about next year’s event, contact Helping Hands at reservation@helpinghandsbelton.org.