Some choose to play with their food; others choose to create art out if it.
CityScape’s Canstruction event, the fifth-annual charity benefiting St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, brought together 12 competing teams of architectural, engineering and construction firms on March 5 to build sculptures out of canned food.
Beginning at 5:30 a.m., the teams spent hours using over 55,000 cans of food and other nonperishable food items to build structures that varied from giant stagecoaches to hippos to minions from the hit movie “Despicable Me,” all to help feed the hungry.
“The point is to raise food and money for St. Mary’s Food Bank,” said Kris Gray, co-chairman of Canstruction. “But the main goal is to raise awareness about the hunger problem.”
Hosted by the Society for Marketing Professional Services, Arizona Chapter, Canstruction is one of the largest single-event donations for St. Mary’s; 56,000 pounds of food helped fill more than 400,000 emergency food boxes that St. Mary’s distributes throughout the community.
Andrew Platner, a member of the Urban Land Institute Arizona Young Leaders Group, which won “Best Meal” for their “Hal, the Hungry, Hungry Hippo” design, said that although the process was time consuming, it was a worthy cause.
“It’s one thing to not have a roof over your head,” Platner said. “But to not have roof over your head and to not have a meal? … In America, that’s not acceptable.”
Although judges have already selected nearly all the winners in categories from the “Best Use of Labels” to “Structural Ingenuity,” the exhibit is open to the public until Saturday, which is the last day for spectators to cast their votes for the “People’s Choice Award.”
Winners from this year’s competition will be entered in the national competition, competing against other local winners from around the country through a slide show photography submission.
Contact the reporter at nicole.lavella@asu.edu
