What is CANSTRUCTION?

WHAT IS CANSTRUCTION?

Canstruction® is the most unique food charity in the world! 

A foundation of the Society for Design Administration (SDA), Canstruction® is a design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America.  Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food. 

The results are displayed to the public as magnificent sculpture exhibits in each city where a competition is held.  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. 

Since its inception, ten million pounds of food has been donated to aid in the fight against hunger.  Initiated by the Denver, Seattle and New York Chapters of the SDA in 1992/93, Canstruction® now has over one hundred individual competitions scheduled to take place during the 2008-2009 cycle. 

Design and Construction Industry professional associations that have partnered with the SDA in organizing local competitions include the American Institute of Architects, the Society for Marketing Professional Services and the International Interior Design Association.   

ST. LOUIS PARTICIPATION

The Competition will be held March 2009.

We have expected participation to be 10 – 20 teams for this year’s event.  Possibly 2 student teams will be participating. 

At the close of the competition all of the food used in the structures is donated to the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry and the St. Louis Area Foodbank.

STATISTICS FROM THE HARVEY KORNBLUM JEWISH FOOD PANTRY

• 35.5 Million Americans have food insecurity.  293,000 households in Missouri live with hunger.  This includes low income working families and seniors.
• 823,915 Missourians use food stamps to buy food each month, which equates to 14% of the population. 
• 84% of Missouri food stamp benefits go to households with children.
• Missouri food stamp households receive, on average $0.84 per person per meal in benefits. 
• The Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry distributes 7 to 10 days worth of food to each household.  They are eligible to visit once per month. 
• Over 382,731 food and personal care items were distributed in 2007. 
• In September of 2008 we gave food to 2643 clients, which includes 377 new clients. 
• We have had an increase of 61% in clients from this same period last year (Jan thru Sept).  12,441 clients versus 19,997 clients.
•  We are now averaging 300 new clients each month. 
• Clients are served in over 70 different zip codes and we never turn anyone away.
• We are also one of very few pantries that make deliveries to clients who are homebound.  An average of 3500 deliveries are made each month.
• The cost of food has risen 7.1% from July 2007 – July 2008.
• The pantry’s delivery costs have risen 68% this year due to our increasing number of delivery clients and the increase in gasoline costs.