An Event We Should Do In Indianapolis

Canstruction is a national community service project of the design and construction industry to benefit community food banks. Architects and engineers, in cities across the country, compete to design and build fantastic giant-sized structures made entirely out of canned food. After the winners are chosen in each city the creations go on view to the general public. At the close of the competition all of the food used in the canstructions is donated to the local food banks for distribution to community feeding programs. Over 80 cities participated in the 2006 Canstruction competition, including Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

The Flickr Photo Pool for Canstruction shows lots of sculptures from past competitions and some of the 2006 contruction.

After we saw the 2005 competition in New York, I went to family Thanksgiving in Iowa, and discovered they do a very similar event -- each year, one of the local churches in Washington, Iowa sculpts a giant cornucopia from harvested food from local farmers, which is then donated to food kitchens.

Similar concepts, one with an urban and one with a rural feel.