(Memphis) At the University of Memphis, this is not your typical canned food drive.
Jennifer Zhang is a student at Collierville High School.
Zhang said, “We work on it a lot. It fell down a lot, but it’s working.”
One-by-one, students from ten high schools in Memphis and Shelby County are studying and stacking thousands of cans of food they collected in a competition called “Canstruction.”
The event is organized by the West Tennessee Branch American Society of Civil Engineers Younger Members Group.
The high school teams were mentored by a professional civil engineer and a civil engineering student.
Zhang said, “Somebody has to draw. Somebody has to come up with scales and we have to figure out how many cans they have to buy.”
Of course, then comes the hard part. They have to build it.
Collierville High is constructing a pretty famous cartoon character.
Zhang said, “We got Spongebob (Squarepants) and the house over there”
Not far away, the team from Harding Academy builds a giant structure.
Elizabeth Fortin is a Harding student. She says their theme pays tribute “The Wizard of Oz.”
Fortin said, “We are building the Emerald City out of cans and our theme is “Dorothy, You Are Not in Kansas Anymore.” There’s a yellow brick road and a field of poppies.”
But what these teams are also doing is not only building engineering skills, but fighting hunger.
It’s what the White Station team says its project is all about.
Yuki Inaba is a student at White Station, “We call ours a set from “Famine to Fruit.” Basically, we have a structure in the middle. It’s like a tower and it’s a pedestal and on top we have a fruit.”
They are amazing structures built out of cans of beans, ravioli, tuna, and stewed tomatoes that will be used as a foundation for fighting hunger through the help of the Mid-South Food Bank.
Inaba said, “We are going to leave it here and the University of Memphis will donate it to the Mid-South Food Bank.”
Today’s event raised more than 12,800 cans of food.
This is the sixth year for the Younger Members Group competition.
To date, the competition has contributed more than 60,000 pounds of food to the Mid-South Food Bank, the equivalent of 50,000 meals for people in need.
Collierville High School was the overall winner in today’s “Canstruction” competition.
