Back to top

Jack Skellington, the tragic hero of Tim Burton's classic stop-motion film "The Nightmare Before Christmas," is also a hero to many hungry individuals and families throughout Cook County this season. He's been replicated completely out of canned food by Pepper with our partners Stantec, Primera, USG and Lotte Advanced Materials as part of Chicago's 2019 Canstruction event. It took a team of over 30 people more than six hours and 5,000 cans to bring Jack to life.  

 

 

Canstruction is a unique worldwide charity that hosts competitions, exhibitions and events showcasing colossal structures made entirely out of full cans of food. The Chicago design / build program benefits the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Teams comprised of professionals from the architecture, engineering and construction industry design and then raise funds to build structures composed of non-perishable food items. These “cansculptures” are housed on the first floor of the Merchandise Mart and are on display to the public as a giant art exhibition. The creations are judged in various categories by a celebrity chef and prominent members of the AEC industry, followed by an awards presentation and cocktail party.

Canstruction Chicago is the Food Depository’s largest one-day food drive event of the year. In 2018, Canstruction Chicago collected more than 138,000 lbs. of non-perishable items for the Food Depository’s network of 700 soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and programs throughout Cook County. This program alone was able to help provide over 230,000 meals. 

Please show Jack Skellington some love by voting for him as your favorite structure at the link below through midnight on Wednesday, October 16:
https://canstructionchicago.org/vote-here