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

Taste of the nation is almost here! 

We have 34 restaurants participating in Central Florida’s favorite foodie event this year. I bet some of your favorite Central Florida dining spots are on this list .

Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation event is put together by a volunteer committee group. I attend the meetings as a representative of Second Harvest Food Bank. Both beneficiaries, Coalition for the Homeless and Second Harvest Food Bank help out with the planning of the event. If you are attending, make sure to stop by our tables.

To enable you to fully enjoy the endless supply of wine, beer and delicious cocktails, Orlando World Center Marriott is generously offering Taste of the Nation guests a discounted rate for rooms on the night of June 5th! Click here to take advantage of this fabulous deal. The code will show up automatically on the page.

Everyone has worked so hard these past few months bringing this event together. I can’t give away everything that we have planned … but I can give you a sneak peak of what to expect. 

Here is a small food preview: 

      -  Chef-carved Rosemary and Dijon Crusted Roasted Pork Loin Served with a Wild Mushroom 
          and Sun-Dried Tomato Pearl Barley Risotto
      -  Chef Jean-Louis’ Bananas Foster
      -  Greek Tuna Tataki in Lettuce Gyros with Sumac, Onions and Avocado Tzatziki
      -  Roasted Beet Brownies with Gorgonzola, Spicy Cashews & Vanilla Honey

We also have some very unique auction items this year. Don’t forget to make your way around the silent auction. You never know what you will find!

      -  New York Yankees 27 World Championships ticket replicas
      -  Tickets to the Rachael Ray taping in New York plus plane ticket
      -  A  trip Chicago: flight, hotel, and dining included
      -  Chefs tables from Taste of the Nation participating Restaurants
      -  Many more!

100% of ticket sales help ensure no kid in America grows up hungry.

Hope to see you at Taste of the Nation Orlando! If you want to find me … look for the person twittering, facebooking and taking photos.

Click here to buy tickets!

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager

Don’t forget to check-in. I will be leaving tips throughout the night!

This past Saturday morning we piloted our Produce to the People program at Victory World Outreach in Maitland. The goal of Produce to the People is to deliver a truckload of produce directly to a community site where it will be handed our immediately by a team of volunteers from one of our partner feeding agencies. We wanted to focus on fresh produce for this program because that can be the most difficult for our clients to have access to on a limited budget.

For our pilot, we delivered two palates of cucumbers, two palates or corn, four palates of grapefruit juice, two palates of Grocery Alliance items, and two palates of apple slices. It was a chilly morning, but Victory World Outreach estimates that they served a little over 200 people.

Volunteers were the key to success. There were at least 16 volunteer on hand. They had an assembly line set up that would make Henry Ford proud. In addition to handing out food, volunteers would help people to their cars, talk to people in the waiting line, and direct traffic. 

Thanks to everyone who helped organize this event. Big thanks to Victory World Outreach. They went way above and beyond in organizing the distribution. This Saturday we’re in Kissimmee to try it all over again with some changes here and there.

We’ll be testing out this program two more times this month in Kissimmee and East Orange County. We’ll let you know how it goes!

Upcoming Produce to the People Pilots

October 24th
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Solid Rock
Church of God
1904 North Michigan Ave.
Kissimmee, Florida 34774

October 31st
8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
New Covenant Church of Central Florida
990 Belvedere Road
Orlando, Florida 32820

Below are some photos from the event: