As part of an annual tradition, several Poudre School District schools participated in the 37th Colorado State University C.A.N.S. Around The Oval, one of the largest fund and food drives in Northern Colorado.
C.A.N.S. stands for Cash And Nutritious Staples. This drive raises awareness about food insecurity and registered groups collect donations from mid-September to mid-October for The Food Bank for Larimer County.
Ten schools participated this year, including Beattie, Bethke, Johnson, Kruse, Lopez, and Riffenburgh elementary schools; Kinard and Preston middle schools, Rocky Mountain High School, and PSD Global Academy.
Event organizers also reintroduced their popular CANstruction activity this year during the collection celebration on the Oval, Oct. 18. This is a competition where registered teams create sculptures out of cans, and the theme for 2023 was “iCANic Architecture.”
Bethke Elementary School’s fifth grade Student Council represented their school during the CANstruction event, winning first place. Second and third place went to two groups of third graders from Lopez Elementary School.
The Funds CANpetition was a close one for PSD. Kinard Middle School came in second place out of all competing teams with $4,756.58 raised and Rocky Mountain High School came in third place with $4,334.43.
The PSD Food CANpetition results are as follows:
- Bethke Elementary School with 2,865.7 pounds
- Kinard Middle School with 2,290.2 pounds
- Rocky Mountain High School with 2,074.8 pounds
- Honorable mention to Lopez Elementary School for raising 1,209.5 pounds
C.A.N.S. Around The Oval teams raised $50,240.75 and 16,178.52 pounds of food overall this year. Event organizers estimate this will provide around 100,481.5 meals to our community not including physical food donations collected.