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, a creative in residence for the Zapara School of Business at the private Seventh-day Adventist campus, created a massive display in which the spoons hang from strings inside the business school lobby.
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La Sierra University creative in residence Rebecca Waring-Crane holds a cardboard spoon with her name cut out in as she works on her art installation featuring 16,553 cardboard spoons in Riverside on Thursday, March 27, 2025. Each spoon represents children struggling with food insecurity. The artwork is in the lobby of the university’s Zapara School of Business. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Waring-Crane’s work on the project began nearly two years ago when she researched information on food insecurity among children in Riverside. Recently, she lined up volunteers and got additional statistics on food insecurity in Riverside and San Bernardino counties from the nonprofit Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino.
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.
A public reception for the installation, called “Article 24,” is set for 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 researched by Waring-Crane — that 16,553 elementary school children in Riverside qualified for free 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:
For Waring-Crane, it’s the second art project on Inland Empire hunger.
Her first, also at La Sierra’s business school, 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 [email protected].
Editor’s note: This story and photo captions have been updated to correct errors. The art installation raises awareness of children grappling with food insecurity. The number of cardboard spoons corresponds to the number of elementary school-aged children in Riverside who qualified for free lunches in 2022-23, as researched by Rebecca Waring-Crane, the creative in residence for the Zapara School of Business. She began working on the piece nearly two years ago, before Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino became involved.
Originally Published: April 1, 2025 at 12:56 PM PDT