'Can'-struction Stacks Up!

What can some engineering prowess and hundreds of canned goods deliver? Top tier designs for our Canville competition!

With summer as this year's theme, five teams went to work constructing their best version of what encapsulates summer but in non-perishable goods form.

Austin campus designs:

• UT Tower - constructed by the Longhorn Club
• Minion (sporting aloha vibes) - constructed by the Customer Quality team
• American flag and watermelon slice - constructed by the Implant team

Taylor campus designs:

• Beach scene - constructed by the Infra Technology Construction (ITC) team
• A&M bonfire - constructed by the Aggie Club

Employees were able to pick their favorite design at each campus and we also had guest judges from our community partners, Central Texas Food Bank and Shepherd's Heart Food Pantry in Taylor.

For the Austin campus, the UT Tower won the employee vote while the Minion took home the judge's vote. The two judges from the Central Texas Food Bank, Amelia Long and Ivan Marinos, had to phone a friend (by friend, we mean a video call with their Chief Development Officer, Mark Jackson) to be a tie-breaker. The Minion ended up winning their vote.

"All three designs we felt matched well against one another, they all brought with them that theme of summer, while each brought something different," Marinos explained on their judging process. "The Minion was also impressive for its use of high quality, sustainably sourced protein options which are especially valuable as food donations."

In Taylor, the ITC team won the judge's choice and employees' choice, with a resounding 73 employee votes, the most for any of the designs.

The judges from Shepherd's Heart Food Pantry thought both designs were great and brought back fond memories for them, but they had to make the hard decision and pick one.

"The beach scene was the winner. All the colors of the design reminded us of special times spent with family and friends at the beach with the campfire, grilling hotdogs and burgers," said Loretta Masters, executive director of Shepherd's Heart Food Pantry.

Seung Hee Sin and her ITC teammates said they wanted to build something that would have the most impact for the food bank. "We brainstormed around the theme and came up with a summer cruise beach idea," Sin explained. "We worked on sourcing the most nutritious nonperishable food items and built the best Canville structure."

According to Shepherd’s Heart Food Pantry, the Taylor office competition netted them 3,000 pounds of donated food!

All winners received a $100 Cause card to donate to a charity of their choice. All participating teams received also received $50 Cause cards.