March 29, 2024

EP Volunteers & Companies Help ‘Canstruct’ Two Giant Sculptures

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Sculptures created from full cans of food benefit R.I. Community Food Bank

East Providence volunteers and companies were instrumental in creating two of six enormous canned-goods sculptures for a recent Canstruction® Rhode Island competitive exhibit benefiting the Rhode Island Community Food Bank (www.rifoodbank.org).

James M. Partridge and Christopher Rose, both of East Providence, were members of a team of volunteers from Dimeo Construction Co. and Edward Rowse Architects Inc. Their Magic Lunchbox sculpture earned a Canstruction RI Honorable Mention and, more importantly, provided approximately 8,900 full cans of food to the Food Bank.

Volunteers from East Providence-based Parker Construction Co. as well as from Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects, Odeh Engineers, and Herrick & White Architectural Woodworkers comprised another team. Their sculpture, titled Turning the Tides on Hunger, captured two awards: Jurors’ Favorite and Best Use of Labels. The team’s efforts resulted in 7,258 cans of food for the Food Bank.

The awards qualify their sculptures for entry in the international Canstruction® (www.canstruction.org) competition. Canstruction is a national food charity of the design and construction industry that has 
helped raise nearly 40 million pounds of food throughout the United States and many other countries since 1992.

Photos of local juried award-winning sculptures are submitted in the same categories in the international Canstruction competition. In addition to Jurors’ Favorite, Best Use of Labels and Honorable Mention, the juried award categories are Structural Ingenuity and Best Meal. Viewers of the exhibit and/or photos posted on the Rhode Island Community Food Bank’s Facebook page voted for an R.I.-only People’s Choice award. Winners of the international competition are announced at the annual spring convention of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

The Canstruction® RI sculptures, seen by thousands at Providence Place from March 12 to 25, also depicted Best Meal winner R2-D2 and BB-8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Dory from Finding Nemo and the upcoming Finding Dory; a “taste” of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee; and Left Shark from the 2015 Super Bowl Half-Time Show, which won the Structural Ingenuity and People’s Choice awards.

During a gala and awards ceremony at the exhibit site, R.I. Community Food Bank CEO Andrew Schiff thanked all the participants for their efforts. “We are so delighted to once again be involved in Canstruction RI,” he said. “This event raises awareness of hunger in the state and this year we expect it to stock our shelves with about 30,000 pounds of food. We appreciate all of the hard work and dedication that goes into these incredible sculptures.”

The “de-canstructed” sculptures later weighed in at 29,514 pounds of non-perishable goods for the R.I. Community Food Bank. Each month, the Food Bank serves 60,000 people through a network of 167 agencies such as food pantries, shelters, youth programs and senior centers.

Sponsors Critical to Success
“It’s gratifying to see the strong commitment that our sponsors and volunteers have to assisting the Food Bank with our Canstruction RI events,” said committee co-chair R. Drayton Fair, AIA, ALA, LEED AP, a partner at LLB Architects, Pawtucket, and who as an AIA-ri past-president started Canstruction Rhode Island in 2007. “Many of our sponsors have participated multiple times. They all are vitally essential to the success of the exhibit, and we are very grateful for their generous support.”

Canstruction is sponsored nationally by the Society for Design Administration with implementation through local chapters of the AIA. Each biennial Canstruction Rhode Island event is sponsored and organized by R.I. chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA-ri) and Associated General Contractors (RIAGC). Additionally, many private companies sponsor the event and each team relies on other sponsors to fund the purchase of the cans of food for their sculptures.

This year’s event sponsors included: Taco Inc., Cranston; Kasabian Construction, Providence; Andersen Windows & Doors, Bayport, Minn.; Pace Representatives, Braintree, Mass.; and Maloney & Co., Guilford, Conn. In-kind donors were: General Growth Properties, Providence; Gasbarro’s Fine Wines, Providence; Rhode Island Rentals, Warwick; Inkwell Communications, Providence; and The Color Company, Providence.

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