CANstruction Toronto collects 71,000 cans of food to support Daily Bread Food Bank

Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank will receive 71,000 cans, thanks to donations from the 22nd edition of CANstruction Toronto, a competition which aims to raise awareness and support Toronto’s hunger gap.

Since 1999, Canstruction Toronto has been bringing together the local design community to create canned sculptures for a competition food-raiser that gives back to people struggling with hunger. Each year, unique structures are exhibited to the public in Toronto and are eventually deconstructed, brought back to the Daily Bread Food Bank and distributed to people in need over the summer months.

This year, a total of 21 teams from different architecture and engineering firms across the city put their creativity to the test by building sculptures using cans of shelf-stable food.

Each entry was judged by a jury of industry experts during the Awards Ceremony. Some of this year’s designs include an illuminated Care Bear structure and a Terminator skull. This year also marked the introduction of a new award category: Most Cans Used, in which the winning entry used 9,972 cans.

To date, Canstruction Toronto has donated over 1 million pounds of food to Daily Bread Food Bank. This year, 71,000 cans were used across all 21 designs.

While most of the competition’s awards were distributed during the Awards Ceremony, one final category will recognize its winner on May 18, 2024. The People’s Choice Award is given to the structure whose picture receives the most likes on the CANstruction Toronto Instagram page.

To vote for your favourite, visit their page, and “like” your design of choice. Voting officially closes on May 18 at 1:00 p.m. (EST).

Below is the full list of winners.

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Best Meal Award
Core Architects Inc.

Can-necting the Hungry City, which used 5,208 cans, represents the journey the  community is taking to arrive at a
place where all have reliable access to food.

Honourable Mention Award
Gensler Architecture & Design Canada Inc.

Cantunator used a total of 4,630 items. Like the Terminator reimagined, this project aimed to hold the promise to lead humanity into an age of prosperity and abundance. This sculpture also aims to be a symbol of the positive potential of AI to address global challenges, including hunger and food security.

Structural Ingenuity Award
Diamond Schmitt Architects

Using 5,332 items, Sharing Can Bear Care, uses the popular Care Bear brand, and represents the image of Care Bears as their food sculpture. The team borrowed the imagery of the Care bears and the associated values and lessons taught to children in the show: care, love, bravery, friendliness, and compassion.

Best Use of Labels Award
DIALOG

Using 3,215 cans, Global Fever aims to raise awareness of global warming by reimagining the blue planet turning red and forming the red bulb of a thermometer.

Best Original Design Award
LEA Consulting and CS&P Architects

This project, which used 4,896 cans, is called Just Keep Swimming, which serves as a commentary on food security and sustainability. The can-structed fish aims to showcase how a single can of food is bigger than one may initially think.
Using tuna also aims to reflects on the depletion of the ocean’s resources.

Most Cans Award
Turner Fleischer Architects Inc.

SOS: Hunger Emergency used 9,972 cans and is a bottle adrift in the sea of food insecurity crashing onto the shore and shattering, aiming to represent a call for help from 1 in 10 Torontonians who rely on food banks.