Susan McDaniel Havre Daily News smcdaniel@havredailynews.com
Express yourself. Some people do this through dance, some through art. A competition coming up at the Holiday Village Shopping Center will show the talents of community groups throughout Hill County expressing themselves through food. The Montana Campus Corps of Montana State University- Northern working with the Havre Food Bank is sponsoring the event called Community Creations “Flavors of Hope” on April 28-29. The competition was inspired by the need to sustain the Havre Food Bank during the second half of 2007. Teams made up of business groups, organizations or community members will design and construct a sculpture made with canned and packaged foods based on the “Flavors of Hope” theme. Sculptures can resemble a piece of pie, bananas, home, anything that deals with hope, community, food and ending hunger. Teams of at least five people with at least one adult over 18 years of age will construct their designs with an unlimited amount of cans or packaged items. Teams supply their own food to create the artwork. There are no money limits placed on the teams and they can have sponsors to help them pay for the costs involved in the construction. The teams will begin assembling their creations at 8 Saturday morning, April 28. They have until 10 Saturday night to complete the sculptures. Judging will take place at 2 Sunday afternoon. Awards will be given for the most complex design, the most artistic use of labels in a design, the most cans Will be a people’s choice award. All the food used in the competition is then donated to the Havre Food Bank after the judging is over. Montana Campus Corps volunteers are AmeriCorps members who are performing a national service term on the MSU-N campus. The mission of Campus Corps is to provide Montana students with meaningful service opportunities to enhance their academic studies and address community needs. Volunteers from the Montana Campus Corps donated their spring break time to a seven-day service project in March on the Blackfeet Reservation. Along with volunteers from the Blackfeet Community’s Montana Campus Corp, and volunteers from Gonzaga University, the Sweet Grass Society and Communities in Action the group worked on a project called the “Mission Possible Service Project.” The work included weatherizing 50 homes. The Havre Food Bank is totally nonprofit and operates solely on donations. The majority of the patrons of the food bank are not eligible for other types of public assistance. Many of the people served by the food bank are senior citizens, single parents and children. During 2006, the Havre Food Bank made up 1,369 food baskets for almost 4,000 individuals. This included 1,875 children. The food bank took in 79,999.4 pounds of food for the year, not including the perishable items donated by the grocery stores.
