CANstruction is an event in which teams of architects and engineers compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from cans of food. This competition takes place throughout North America and is put on by the Society for Design Administration.

The giant structures are displayed to the public as a team of judges decide which exhibits sports the best meal, best use of labels, structural ingenuity and the Juror’s favorite. There is also a people’s choice award as well as honorable mention.

At the end of the completion the structures are taken down and all the food is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries and soup kitchens.

Since CANstruction’s debut in 1992, ten million pounds of food have been donated to aid in the fight against hunger. The competition has over one hundred individual competitions scheduled for 2007 – 2008.

To see if there is a competition near you please click here.

The rules of the competition are simple. The structure must be self-supporting, labels may not be covered and the structure must fit in a 10 ft x 10 ft x 8 ft space. Sounds simple right?

Check out Canstruction.org for some amazing photos from previous CANstruction exhibits. You almost can’t believe that these are made out of food.

For the last three years Alpha Community Development has participated in this unique competition. We have built a wave, a boot, and a rubix cube.

The completion this year in Portland, Oregon takes place on April 22nd, 2008 and we plan to build something “secret” from the movie Ratatouille as our exhibit. The secret design including pictures will be released closer to the competition date.We need your help to fund the food for the build this year. Our goal as a company is to raise between $10,000 and $15,000 for the Oregon food bank.

If you are interested in donating please use the donation button below. All donations will be used to buy food for this years competition.

There is amazing footage of one of these structures being built at a previous CANstruction competition. Check it out by clicking read more below for an embeded video.