The February 2020 “Canstruction Midland” competition featured a race car, a train, a submarine, a tank, a container ship, and a pirate ship built by high school or middle school students entirely from donated cans and other non-perishable food items

Student teams used 3D imaging software programs to help design and model their works of art before constructing them using cans and boxes of food donated by DuPont and other corporate partners. For over a week, their handiwork was on display at the local Midland Mall in Midland, Michigan, USA. Fourteen of our employees volunteered to work four-hour shifts at the mall, providing information about the event and selling tokens at $1 apiece so that passersby could vote for their favorite structure.

The winning teams at the event received trophies and awards, and the Midland County Emergency Food Bank Network (EFBN) received the thousands of food items used in the construction as well as $2,900 from token sales.

The success of this event went a long way towards preparing EFPN to address the increased demand for food assistance in a time when, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its supplies were dwindling and its main sources of food—churches and businesses—were closed.