On October 16, Orlando Fashion Square will host the 18th annual CANSTRUCTION® – Orlando competition. During the competition,13 teams consisting of top local architects, engineers, contractors, designers, Girl Scout Troops, and high schools will gather to design and build spectacular giant-sized objects, approximately 8’ x 8’ x 8’, made entirely from canned and nonperishable foods.

This year’s theme? Wonders of the World!

The WONDERful structures will stay up at Orlando Fashion Square all week long until Sunday, October 23rd. So if you can’t make it to the build on Sunday…you have the whole week to stop by!

Awards

It is a competition after all! A panel of distinguished judges from the community decides the winning structures in five different categories: Best Meal, Structural Ingenuity, Best Use of Labels, Juror’s Favorite, and two Honorable Mentions. In addition to the primary awards we have a variety of local awards, all of which will be handed out at our evening celebration event on October 20. The Rotary Club of Orlando will be offering prizes for the school competition.

Do you want to help one of the teams win “The People’s Choice” Award? When visiting the structure at Orlando Fashion Square, be sure to vote for your favorite Canstruction by scanning their QR code with your smartphone! How cool is that?

NEW THIS YEAR: The Rotary Club of Orlando Gets Involved!

The Rotary Club of Orlando has added a new category to this year’s competition for students in greater Orlando’s high schools. . The Club has recruited eight high school teams to compete for prizes in a best school spirit category and will help with materials and mentorship. High school students will contribute their time, talents, and energies to collect cans of food to assemble sculptures that successfully represent the spirit of the school. This project is designed to support the principle of Rotary International: Service Above Self through its commitment to youth, alleviating hunger, and community service.

Participating high schools include: Oviedo, Timber Creek, Jones, Dr. Phillips, Apopka, Wekiva, and Edgewater.

High school teams compete only against other high school teams for prizes. Best Sculpture Awards will be given to the schools sponsoring a first place team and two additional finalists totaling $700 ($500 first place and $100 each for the two other finalists).

So what is the purpose?

The purpose of the design competition is to bring the community together to address the issue of hunger. At the close of the exhibit, all of the food products used in the structures is donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida for distribution to pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, senior programs and low-income daycares.

“We collected more than 20,000 food items in 2010, and it went a long way toward helping Central Floridians in need,” said chair of Canstruction and partner at Burke, Hogue Mills, Inc., a Lake Mary-based architecture and interior design firm, Deborah Rusnock.

Why Second Harvest LOVES Canstruction?

• All the food will go straight to helping our neighbors in need.
• Awareness! Mall goers have to stop and check out the beautiful structures and in turn…learn a thing or two about hunger in our community.
• It’s free art exhibit for our community.
• Gets our community involved in a new and exciting way.
• It is so much and fun and so amazing to look at!!

We just want to thank all of the 18 teams involved this year. We know the task isn’t easy but we are all excited to see the finished Canstructions! Also, a huge thank you to the Canstruction Orlando Committee led by Deborah Rusnock. They have worked so hard to put on this fantastic event for Orlando.

So are you excited yet? Because we sure are! Definitely come out to Orlando Fashion Square Sunday, October 16 – Sunday, October 23 so you can be amazed by the “Wonder of the World” all made out of cans. You won’t want to miss it!

Sasha Hausman
Development Manager

Are you ready to talk a walk on the wild side? We sure hope so! Because Canstruction is back with a new theme for 2010: ZOO CAN DO IT! Canstruction Orlando is teaming up with the Central Florida Zoo to create the best Canstruction yet!

So you might be asking, what in the world is a Canstruction?

Canstruction is a design/build competition currently held throughout cities in North America.  Teams of architects, engineers, and folks from numerous organizations come together to build large structures made entirely from full cans of food.  Since its inception, 10 million pounds of food have been donated to aid in the fight against hunger throughout the nation.

Orlando has produced an event every year since 1994. Over the years we have collected over 306,000 cans, boxes, or bags of food and raised over $37,000 in donations through the People’s Choice award for a favorite structure. We have had strong support from the Design Community and in particular, the Society for Design Administration and the American Institute of Architects.

This year’s 8 fabulous teams have been busy trying to come up with the best zoo themed structure for the event. I am pretty excited to see what everyone has been working on. The build will begin Sunday, October 17th at 9 am at Orlando Fashion Square! You can come out and watch the teams create their masterpieces.

Lions! And tigers! And bears! OH YES! Well kind of…If you come out between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on the 17th, you will be in for a WILD time as the folks at the Central Florida Zoo will be bringing some of their friends over.  You’ll have to come out to Orlando Fashion Square to see what kind of fun furry friends, or creepy creatures will be there.

The structures will be on display at Orlando Fashion Square all week, October 17-24. The teams will receive awards like Best Meal, Best Use of Labels, Jurors’ Favorite, Healthy Award, People’s Choice, and Best Signage.

Would you like to have a say in who wins the People’s Choice Award and have a chance to win a pretty awesome Central Florida Zoo gift pack? Well stop by the mall all week while the structures are up and vote! You will be automatically entered to win a membership to the Central Florida Zoo for a family of 4, a zip line experience for a family of 4, and 4 zoo shirts!

This is the most important part…what happens to the food after the event? On Sunday the 24th, all the teams will get together to break down the structures. The Second Harvest Food Bank truck and staff will be there to load the food and bring it back to the food bank. From there, our trusty volunteers will sort the food and get it ready to go out to a neighbor in need.

The staff over at Second Harvest is going BANANAS over Canstruction 2010: Zoo Can Do It! We just wanted to say a big thanks to all of our teams, team sponsors, and of course our hard working Canstruction Orlando Committee.
               
So quit “lion” around! Make your way out to Orlando Fashion Square to take a look at these amazing structures.  For more information about Canstruction Orlando, please visit www.canstruction-orlando.org

See you there!

Sasha Hausman
Development Manager

Wow, I can’t believe that it is already October! And I couldn’t be happier! The weather is getting cooler, the holiday season is right around the corner, and of course Canstruction is here!

For those of you who are familiar with this amazing event, you know why I am excited. If this is your first time hearing about it, listen up … because it is a site to see!!

Canstruction is a community event where local architects, engineers, planners, contractors, schools,  and churches come together and build 8x8x8 structures out of at least 1,000 canned foods!

This year’s theme is “A City of Cans!” Each team is going to build a structure you will see in a city, for example; a house, school, zoo etc. 

Check out this amazing video made from last year’s build …

So when and where can you see these larger than life structures? I thought you’d never ask!!

Come out to the Fashion Square Mall at the West Course by Sears. The build will take place on Sunday, October 18th and they will stay up until Sunday, October 25th. Also, you are cordially invited to our celebration at the Fashion Square mall on the 22nd at 5:30 pm for our celebration! RSVP Canstruction® Orlando Awards Celebration.

Come out and vote for your favorite structure October 18-25, bring in a food donation (non-perishable!) and you will get put in a drawing for a $200 shopping spree at the Fashion Square Mall!!

There is one last thing we need help with. Forest Lake Academy is building a School for Canstruction. But they need our help with gathering the food to make their structure. Please check out what they need.  If you want to help out Forest Lake, please drop off your food donations to our Food Rescue Center (1918 Princeton St Orlando FL 32804) and ask for Sasha!

I am so excited to watch the city come to life, and I hope you are too! I know that this city of cans will be unlike anything you have ever seen before…so don’t miss out! If you have any questions, let me know.

Don’t forget to visit the Canstruction Web site for full details: http://www.canstruction-orlando.org/

See ya soon!

Sasha Hausman
Events Specialist
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
2008 Brengle Avenue
Orlando, Fl 32808
407-843-5009. ext. 25
shausman@foodbankcentralflorida.org