By SALINA POST
Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank distributed a record-breaking number of food and hygiene items in 2021. Now the local agency is facing the challenge of sparse shelves with, well, a challenge.
In 2021, the food bank distributed 486,023 items from its pantry, in addition to an abundance of fresh produce, bakery items and special products, according to Karen Couch, food bank executive director.
As a way to refill its pantry shelves, the food bank has created a CANSTRUCTION COMPETITION, in which six teams in the community have been challenged to collect food items and create displays with the collected food while raising awareness of the local fight against hunger, Couch noted.
The competition kicked off with the Cubs in Action students from Coronado Elementary School. The students turned their school-wide collection of tuna, brown sugar, and canned olives into a two-dimensional rendering of their beloved mascot, the cougar.
In the second week of the competition, the LDS Missionaries stationed in Salina finished building a giant panda made out of cans of tuna, beef ravioli, broth, and spam in the lobby of the food bank, 255 S. Chicago Street.
Four additional teams - K-State Salina, Salina Adult Education Center, JAB IT PC, and The Temple - are currently working on their displays in hopes of winning the Sweepstakes Award, which will be given to the display with the most votes on Facebook.
"We love all of the creativity and imagination that our CANSTRUCTION teams are bringing to this competition. This is such a unique way to bring people together around a cause, while helping to restock our pantry,” Couch said.
Follow the progress of the competition, learn more about hunger in Saline County and vote for the sweepstakes winner by following the Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank on Facebook.