The City of Roanoke is a co-sponsor for this year’s Canstruction Southwest Virginia, a creative and competitive event featuring massive sculptures built from cans of food. The sculptures will be on display at the Taubman Museum of Art Friday, Nov. 7, through Saturday, Nov. 22.Each participating team raises funds to purchase their cans of food, which Kroger provides at a reduced cost. Two Student Team sponsors are fully covering the canned food costs for the school systems competing this year: Kroger is sponsoring the students representing Roanoke City Public Schools, and the Blue Ridge Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is sponsoring the students from Roanoke County Public Schools.
New this year, collection bins will be placed inside the Taubman Museum throughout the entire Canstruction SWVA exhibit to accept donations of even more cans of food from the public. When the exhibit closes, sculptures will be dismantled and all cans will go directly to the Feeding America Southwest Virginia food bank for distribution to people confronting hunger who live throughout our region–just in time for the Thanksgiving season.
Last year’s inaugural Canstruction SWVA event raised nearly 27,000 cans, totaling more than 27,181 pounds of food, making it Feeding America’s second largest food drive. Based on the sculpture designs submitted by the competing teams, this year Canstruction SWVA will contribute more than 35,000 cans (after the sculptures are dismantled, the cans will be weighed to determine the total pounds) plus the donations of canned food dropped off at the Taubman by visitors to the exhibit.
In addition to the City of Roanoke, sponsors for this event include Ardagh Group, Kroger, Taubman Museum of Art, Gilliam Katz Architecture + Design, HomeTown Bank, and F. Geoffrey Ltd.