Canstruction Contest Benefits Backpack Buddies Program

CARTERSVILLE, GA — With a passion for design and a desire to help children in need, Shaw Contract and Patcraft commercial flooring brands hosted the first Canstruction Contest to benefit the Backpack Buddies program, a joint initiative of the Bartow County and Cartersville City school systems.

The effort resulted in the donation of 10,111 food items to supplant the program’s weekly food distribution coordinated through the city and county schools. Five teams competed by building large creations from unopened packages of food, which were disassembled after contest judging and donated to Backpack Buddies. The teams had two days to build their structures, followed by contest judging on Friday, Dec. 7.

Cartersville Mayor Matt Santini, Cartersville City Manager Tamara Brock, Bartow County Schools Homeless Liaison Kelly Whitmire and Cartersville City Schools Homeless Liaison Paula Womack served as judges for the competition.

The first-place award was given to the FantastiCANS team, which built a Hot Wheels race track and vehicle consisting of 2,146 food items. Second place was awarded to the Shaw Contract marketing and design team who built The Very Hungry Caterpillar from 4,000 canned goods. Additional entries included the Patcraft team’s gingerbread house (1,555 cans), The Island of Misfit Cans team’s Christmas tree (1,096 cans), and CANvas Constructors’ overflowing grocery bag (1,314 cans).

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The competing teams included a variety of members of marketing, design, and custom flooring departments from Shaw Industries’ commercial divisions. Points were awarded for the number of food items used by each team and the creativity of the completed structure. The teams used only items on the Backpack Buddies supply list, and each team raised the funds for the purchase of these items.

“The problem of food insecurity in our community came to my attention last year,” said Heather
Jordan, technical manager for the Custom Design Studio, and chair of the Canstruction planning
committee. “I bumped into a young person I know on a day when snow had begun to fall and the
schools were closing early. She confided that she was excited about the snow, but glad that lunch
had been served before early dismissal. Until then, I had not realized that she, and so many other
children, rely on school meals for their nutrition.”

According to the Bartow County and Cartersville Backpack Buddies program, 60 percent of children in the city and county school systems are eligible to receive free or reduced price meals. Backpack Buddies addresses the scarcity of food in homes by providing children Pre-K through Grade 12 with food to see them through the weekend days when they have none. This effort is essential to help relieve hunger, which in turn improves grades, health, school attendance and self-esteem in our at-risk children.

Images via Shaw Industries