Can-made community pride

Tom Milstead
Posted 11/20/19

Hunger is an issue in Goshen County, but it’s not one that you can see on every street corner.

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Can-made community pride

Posted

TORRINGTON – Hunger is an issue in Goshen County, but it’s not one that you can see on every street corner. 

It won’t destroy your truck’s suspension like some county roads, and politicians won’t discuss it the way they do education spending – but it’s still there, right under the surface, just ducking the everyday discourse. 

But last week, a group of local businesses and organizations came together to do something about it – and they had some fun in the process. A handful of local food banks will see an influx of canned goods in the coming days after the goods used during Can-Made Creations make their way into local supplies. 

Can-Made Creations, hosted by Pinnacle Bank, encouraged local businesses to build a sculpture out of canned goods. The sculptures were judged on Friday, and on Monday the five participating organizations donated their goods to the local food bank of their choice. 

Kaleen Troupe, a personal banker at Pinnacle, organized the contest. 

“We decided to do a different can-collecting thing this year,” she said. “Instead of just having a box and everyone putting their stuff in the box, we did what we called Can-Made Creations. You have to have a minimum of 300 cans and then you make some sort of a sculpture out of it.”

Troupe led judges Kyle Borger, CEO of Goshen HELP, and Jane Faber to see the sculptures at Points West Community Bank, Bell Park Tower, Eastern Wyoming College and Banner Community Hospital. Troupe also showed off Pinnacle’s own creation – a large, can-made Etch-A-Sketch. 

“I thought it would be fun to do here,” she said. 

And it wasn’t just fun, Borger said. Events like Can-Made Creations can go a long way to raising awareness of the issue and the resources at hand to combat it. 

“Recently I looked at an article, basically Feeding America was listing that we’ve got over 1,100 adults that are food insecure and I know there’s like 500 kids and not all of those are getting food,” he said. “It’s not necessarily because the food pantries aren’t doing their job – a lot of times, they just don’t know we exist and this helps with that.”

The judges took notes of the various sculpture’s structure, the condition of the labels, neatness, creativity and overall appearance before ranking each entry. The sculptures got bonus points for using more than 300 cans. 

Points West’s sculpture of a train, which utilized puffed marshmallows as steam, cereal bowls and pie crusts for the train’s wheels and packages of dry pasta for train tracks, was the winning entry – and the only sculpture that used more than canned goods. 

“The rules didn’t say anything about it having to be cans,” said Tanya Lee, of Points West. “We had an idea of the train, and we went to the grocery store and we were looking for things that could look like parts of the train.

“We were brainstorming, and of course the train is our logo, so we wanted to do something representative of Points West.”

Chrissy Martin, another Points West employee, said the bank’s employees worked on the train sculpture throughout the day when the opportunity arose. 

“Honestly, it was a team effort,” she said. “I think everybody had their hand in it. It was just when we had time.”

“It’s hard to quantify because it was like an hour here, a little bit there,” Lee said. 

Martin and Lee said it didn’t take much convincing to get their co-workers involved in the project. It was a chance for the bank to do some good in the community. 

“It’s that time of year for giving, and I think about those who don’t have, when you do,” Martin said. “It’s just important to support the community.”

“When we heard about it, it seemed like a really fun project to do that would also benefit the community as well,” Lee said. 

Borger, who will likely see some of the cans from the sculptures come through his doors at Goshen HELP, said the sculptures – and the donations – demonstrated how the people and businesses of Goshen County can come together for a cause. 

“I think once they know that there’s a need, they love to participate, especially in a fun way,” he said. “A part of our task, I think, is just keeping up awareness of what the need is. At least for Goshen HELP, that’s why we try to communicate as much as we can.”

Bell Park Tower’s sculpture of the Liberty Bell, which contained well over 500 cans, was second. Willy Evans, who took charge in building the sculpture, said she wanted to give back to the pantries that give so much to her residents. 

“We have so many residents here that utilize all of the food places,” she said. “I wanted for us to give back somehow. 

“I just thought Bell Park Tower. I thought, ‘well, what goes with Bell Park Tower?’ I went over and took a picture of the bell over here, and I was going to do it, but I started looking online because I was like ‘how am I going to calculate this?” Even going online, it was tough to figure it out.”

Banner used cans to build a replica of the University of Wyoming’s War Memorial Stadium, complete with a laptop serving as the giant video screen. EWC participated as well, but its non-perishable version of the school’s logo collapsed before the judges arrived. 

While the Can-Made Creations event was fun for local businesses, Borger said the donations will help local food banks with their mission of ending hunger in Goshen County. 

 “A lot of the canned goods that we saw today were the type that people would want versus that the extras that sit in your cupboard for a while,” he said. They were really good food that people are going to love to have. It’s great nutritious food and they’ll be very helpful.”

Borger said Goshen HELP currently serves between 160 and 200 families a month, and for GH as well as the other local food banks, the can donations will be appreciated. 

“We’re serving now between 160 and 200 families a month, and so if you’re looking at 300 cans, then if everybody took one can, it could last you a little over a month,” he said. “Depending on where all the cans go, it will help the food pantries with a month or two worth of canned goods.

“One way or another, they’ll get out to the people that need them.”