Over 240 students from 17 Berks County teams competed recently in the 5th Annual Youth Volunteer Corps of Reading Canstructure Contest. The teams held canned food drives and built incredible structures made entirely from the collected food which was donated to Helping Harvest Food Bank during a student volunteer event on April 9.
Canstructure participants and family members gathered at Helping Harvest to help pack boxes and get the chance to see how their Canstructure food donations are distributed in Berks and Schuylkill counties.
The theme for this year‘s Canstructure Contest was “Favorite Children’s Books.” Penn Bernville Elementary School was the overall competition winner with their build of Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Woods.
The Hunger Fighters team from Wilson School District was the contest’s runner up with their build representing The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Videos of all teams’ incredible Canstructures can be viewed on yvc-canstructure.org.
In addition to food drives, student teams and corporate sponsors held drives for new children’s books. Through these drives, hundreds of books were donated to Helping Harvest to support their weekender backpack program.
The program, which provides a bag of food for children to take home on Fridays after school for the weekend, will include a donated children’s book as well.
