16th annual Canstruction helps fight hunger
JACKSON, Tenn. — RIFA has been helping fight hunger in the Hub City since 1976. One way they do it is through their “cantastic” event.
RIFA hosted their 16th annual Canstruction at the Carl Perkins Civic Center Thursday evening.
“This week we’ve had teams build out structures here in the lobby of the civic center. They’ve worked tirelessly for two days, building structures out of completely canned food items. So tonight is just a celebration of those teams’ hard work and creativity,” said Gracie Sloan, Marketing Director for RIFA.
This year, eight local businesses like Tennalum and Jackson Energy Authority, as well as local churches, displayed their structures and almost all of them had a common theme in mind.
“A hunger theme. So you’ll see a pencil that’s erasing hunger, there’s a Mt. Dew bottle that says, ‘Dew you want to help end food insecurity.’ So we have a lot of really fun ideas,” Sloan said.
The displays competed for several awards such as:
“Best use of can labels. So if they use the labels uniquely, we have best overall design. We have the most cans used in a structure. We of course have our best of show, so that’s kind of the big winner of the night, but we also like to have a spotlight award for those schools and nonprofits that are competing,” Sloan said.
Thanks to this event, RIFA can give back to the community.
“In 2019 we collected over 45,000 pounds of food, and so each year we’ve just seen this competition and this even grow more and more and that’s all because of the generous supporters and the generous teams that make this event possible,” Sloan said.
The latest winner is looking to maintain its winning streak.
“In 2019, the best of show winner went to Tennalum, so we’ll have to see if they take it home again this year,” Sloan said.
This year’s best of show winner is the Trinity Christian Academy leap with their “Together We Can Erase Hunger” structure.
This is their first year participating. Congratulations!
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