Carnival Cruise Line recently used more than 17,000 cans of food to build a cruise ship-like structure which was later donated to New Orleans’ Second Harvest Food Bank at a New Orleans Saints game.
The 30-foot-long creation was the culmination of a Holiday Food & Fund drive involving New Orleans-area schools, sponsored by Carnival and the NFL franchise. The can structure was built in consultation with the New Orleans chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and required more than 100 volunteers.
Both Carnival and the New Orleans Saints provided incentives to students in New Orleans-area schools to participate in the food drive by awarding classroom prizes including free pizza parties, Saints lithograph footballs and free cruises to schools who collected the most cans of food. The joint initiative will provide more than 75,000 meals for those in need in the greater New Orleans area.
"We are so proud to have worked with Carnival Cruise Line and Second Harvest on the successful build of the largest cruise ship made out of cans, but even more excited about the amount of food donations made through the build and the food drives at local schools that will help fight hunger throughout this holiday season,” said Jean-Paul Dardenne, New Orleans Saints’ senior vice president of corporate partnerships.
Carnival’s Holiday Food & Fund drive is the most recent example of the line’s support of the New Orleans community, as the line is New Orleans’ largest cruise operator with two year-round ships carrying 400,000 passengers annually.
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