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NEW YORK—Truckloads of canned foods were moved into the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan on Monday in preparation for the city’s 16th annual Canstruction competition.
40 of New York’s top architectural and engineering firms will launch into a flurry of creative activity, starting on Wednesday at 5 p.m. and carrying on through the night until dawn. The teams will see who can build the most amazing sculpture made entirely of cans of food.
At the close of the exhibit the structures will be dismantled and all of the canned food will be donated to City Harvest for distribution to emergency feeding programs.
“Some may finish at 10 p.m. if they are doing a more simple design and some might go until 2 p.m. or later,” said experienced competition coordinator Cheri Melillo.
The exhibition, co-presented by the American Institute of Architects and the Society for Design Administration will open to the public at 7 a.m. Thursday morning, with the award ceremony that evening at 7 p.m. The public are encouraged to donate a can of food at the exhibit.
Half of the sculptures will be on display in the Winter Garden from Nov. 20 – Dec. 2, 7 a.m. – 11 p.m., and the other half will be on view in the Courtyard Gallery, Nov. 20 – Dec. 8, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The exhibit will be open the entire Thanksgiving weekend for the first time this year, making it a fun outing for family, friends and tourists.
Canstruction is timely cause. During the Thanksgiving Holiday groups usually place a spotlight on hunger to remind everyone that millions of Americans cannot afford to celebrate one of America’s most cherished holidays.
According to Canstruction and City Harvest, the number of people relying on food pantries to bridge the gap to their next paycheck has increased dramatically over the past year. The pantries and soup kitchens are turning people away in record numbers because supply simply cannot keep pace with demand.
In previous years, the giant sculptures created included a dragon and castle tower, a hotdog with accompanying mustard and ketchup bottle, a cobra, butterfly, King Kong and the Empire State Building, a mermaid floating in water, a lotus flower, and a seashell.
