16,553 cardboard spoons in Riverside art piece shine light on hunger

How do you express the seriousness of hunger in the Inland Empire?

A Riverside artist found 16,553 ways.

That’s the number of cardboard spoons that make up an art installation assembled at La Sierra University in Riverside.

Rebecca Waring-Crane, an artist in residence at the private Seventh-day Adventist campus, created a massive display in which the spoons hang from strings inside the Zapara School of Business lobby.

Teaming up with the nonprofit Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino, Waring-Crane got statistics on food insecurity in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and lined up volunteers.

Then she went to work.

Each spoon represents children “struggling with food insecurity and aims to bring awareness to the issues of hunger in the IE,” Rachel Bonilla, a spokesperson for the local Feeding America, wrote in an email.

The installation, called “Article 24,” will be unveiled Thursday, April 24.

The art piece takes its name from Article 24 of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, “which states a child’s right to the highest attainable standard of health, including access to adequate nutrition,” Bonilla wrote.

The number of spoons comes from a local statistic — that 16,553 elementary school children in Riverside qualified for free or discounted lunches in the 2022-23 school year. The spoons, created by Waring-Crane and volunteers, are suspended so guests can walk underneath them — atop mats with more statistics on food insecurity.

The spoons, made of cardboard from food packages like cereal boxes, dangle above statistics such as:

• A 1% drop in hunger saves California $600 million in prevented healthcare costs.
• In 2023, California declared food a human right, but the state has no plan to ensure the right.

For Waring-Crane, officially known as the “creative in residence” at the business school, it’s the second art project on Inland Empire hunger.

Her first, also at La Sierra’s business school, came in January and was dubbed “Empty.” It featured ceramic spoons suspended over an empty ceramic bowl. Each spoon symbolized 10 students in the Alvord Unified School District, which serves western Riverside and nearby areas, who face food insecurity, according to Bonilla.

The new project aims to “create an immersive experience that will inspire action to be taken in some form against hunger in Riverside,” Bonilla wrote.

An opening reception is set for 5 pm. Thursday, April 24, at the Zapara Business School on campus, 4500 Riverwalk Parkway. The public can view the art piece weekdays, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Fridays.

It’s free to attend the event and see the artwork, which will be up until June.

To schedule an “artist walk” with Waring-Crane, email her at rwaringcrane@gmail.com.