Members from five different student organizations around campus gathered to participate in a competition in which students had to build sculptures out of canned food items.

The event, which took place Tuesday night in the Sukup Atrium, was organized by three Iowa State sophomores who are three of the ten Land O’ Lakes’ Global Food Challenge Emerging Leaders for Food Security.

“We thought it would be cool to do a twist on a classic can food drive and do a sculpture competition, and to see how many cans were brought was truly amazing,” said Megan Schnell, one of the emerging Leaders and a sophomore in biological systems engineering.

The organizations that participated included the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA), Business Council/College of Business, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), Agronomy Club and Biological System Engineering Club (BSE).

The organizations built their sculptures out of the food items that they brought, and tried to impress the judges with their work.

Two awards were given out at the end of the night: one for the most food items brought, and one for the most creative sculpture.

The Business Council won for bringing in the most cans, while ASABE won for creativity.

The total amount of food items that were donated by the participating organizations was 1,634 items.

“We did not expect that, so we were really happy with the way that it went,” said Leah Ellensohn, one of the Emerging Leaders and a sophomore in agronomy. “For the five clubs that participated, for them to bring in over 1,000 cans was unbelievable and that’s going to help so many different people.”

The event was special for the Emerging Leaders who put the event on, organizers said.

“I’m really excited about the impact that this will have on local food security,” said Addie Bidwell, one of the Emerging Leaders and a sophomore in agronomy. “To see all of these cans out here and all of them going to a good cause and to people locally around us, that’s probably the coolest part of it for me.”

The event began with pizza being served and guest speakers; they included representatives from Land-O-Lakes and the Salvation Army of Ames and two students who spoke about their experience with the Emerging Leaders internship.

The student speakers tried to reach out to freshmen to apply for the internship since one of the requirements is to be a sophomore. The internship is a year-long fellowship that focuses on things such as food security issues and agricultural challenges.