By Dani Decena

What do a giant red panda, baby food and an engineer have in common? They are some of the key players in the fight against hunger as part of Canstruction Orange County, benefiting Community Action Partnership Orange County (CAP OC)’s food bank program. Overnight, seemingly by magic, Mei, the red panda from Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” appeared at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, ready to greet shoppers with her signature surprise pose.

Thanks to a team of dedicated engineers, architects and Disney VoluntEARS who came together for one night to assemble the structure, dubbed “CANda Panda Make a Difference?”, thousands of cans of baby food, olives, bags of rice and more were on display to raise awareness. The food items will be donated to the OC Food Bank at the end of September.

CAP OC started the annual event 15 years ago, bringing together local architectural and engineering firms in the fight to end hunger. Disneyland Resort has contributed a new design nearly every year and has even been awarded the “Best Original Design” and “Most Cans” awards. This year is especially meaningful for the architecture, facilities and engineering cast members as it is the first time back since the pandemic with a brand-new design showcasing more cans and additional materials than ever before.

Getting Mei to stand took physics, innovation and a bit of pixie dust as the team spent months of preparation to get the structure just right. The design concept was selected in April and from there, the team moved from a digital model to cutting Masonite to maintain structural stability and practicing build sessions to ensure it would hold.

During build night, each can, baby food container (banana, pumpkin and carrot to bring out the vibrant red and orange colors of Mei) and bag of rice was placed lovingly (and carefully) by hand, one-by-one, until the early hours of the morning when Mei finally appeared in her full glory.

Architect Victoria Shingleton became involved in Canstruction when she was an intern five years ago and has grown such a passion for it that she is now the co-captain of this year’s team.

“As architects and engineers, we get to contribute to the environment at the Disneyland Resort, but this is a really unique opportunity to interact with the community and contribute to meet a larger community need,” said Shingleton.

The cast members on this team have a unique opportunity to transfer their talents and abilities from their work environment to a passion project that “feeds” a great cause.

“It’s always neat when you can take your professional life into volunteer activities somehow,” said Kyle Landis, engineer at the Disneyland Resort and co-leader of the Canstruction team. I found a way to contribute in the logistics, the hardware, the transporting … and seeing how that all ties into the creative aspect. “It’s really special to take friends and family to the mall and show them what we created. And watching folks walk by and recognize one of their favorite characters built 10 feet tall is incredible!”

A valuable team bonding experience, this year’s project was the first for some newer team members like Carly Schwulst, a mechanical engineering intern who has volunteered at local food banks since high school. “I feel like it’s helping us as interns get to know everyone in the company and within our team,” said Schwulst. “I have a very close connection with food banks, and it’s been a part of my life for a while, so just being here is an amazing opportunity. It means a lot for the community.”

No matter what role each person plays, the team has shown how fun it CAN be to make a difference.