WMBCTV: Bergen County CANstruction, creativity meets charity

An art competition with a charitable twist as Bergen County Canstruction brings together student teams to create impressive sculptures using only cans of food that are provided through sponsorships. Five teams of high school and college students from across Bergen County participated in an over-night build at American Dream Mall, during which they turned thousands of cans into creative sculptures with the theme of food insecurity - a chronic problem affecting children regionally, nationally and globally.

“The whole goal is to raise awareness to the hunger that is really being faced by so many of our neighbors,” said Bergen County Commissioner Tracy Zur. “It’s estimated that 1 in 6 kids don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”

Officials say that participating in this canstruction event not only gets the youth involved in the fight against food insecurity, but it also gets them working on their stem skills.

STEM is an abbreviation for four closely connected areas of study: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

“They designed using their STEM skills for these wonderful structures to draw attention to food insecurity in our community,” Zur said. “They had to turn what was on paper into a reality.”

Commissioner Zur says turning these sculptures into realities required critical problem solving, math calculations and creativity. She says that the five sculptures will be evaluated and a winner will be selected later today.

Officials say that upon selecting a winning team, the food cans will be donated to some of our area’s food pantries.

“Just this year we had a 26% increase in the utilization of our food pantries throughout Bergen County,” Zur said. “The need for our food pantries is going to be ever-increasing and we’re going to need all of our segments of our population to be part of helping and supporting our neighbors.”