Canstruction

It is once again time to write about the "the most unique food charity in the world" - Canstruction.

Canstruction, you ask? I quote:

"A foundation of the Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction® is a Trademarked design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America Australia and cities from around the world will soon be participating. Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food. It takes 8-12 weeks and thousands of cans of food to create a structure.

"The results are displayed to the public as magnificent sculpture exhibits in each city where a competition is held. The public is invited to donate canned food at the time of the exhibition. At the close of the exhibitions all of the canned food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers. "

So what you get is playfulness, creativity, art, technology, and charity! What a perfect combination! How Deep Fun-worthy!

Except, maybe, for the competition part. I mean, what do they do with the losing cans? And why should anyone have to lose when everyone can, if you excuse the expression, win so much? It saddened me, just a little bit. I expressed this very concern to Canstruction president and executive director Nick Telesca. He responded: "It is not sad. It is ingenious. We have created an exciting way for people to volunteer and to help others. We had over 120 competitions across North America. Over 10,000 volunteers participated and we raised over 2 million pounds of food. It is phenomenal! All of the food is donated to the local food bank. "

Can't argue with success. I guess.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith