Program uses cans, construction and planning to fight hunger

A national program that combines architecture and food to help the needy gets underway today (Saturday) at a Des Moines mall. Nancy Iseminger is one of the organizers of the “Canstruction” project. She says architects, engineers and others in the design community get together and build structures out of non-perishable food items. She says they also get local middle school students involved. Iseminger says all the food used in the structures is donated to the Food Bank of Iowa. She says there’s not set theme for what they build. She says they try to build hunger into their structures in some way, but they don’t have any strict theme and leave it to the imagination of the builders. She says the structures the designers create are “amazing.” She says it’s unbelievable what they can come up with just using the labels of cans. They use the front and back labels depending on the color of the cans. Construction starts at seven A.M. and runs through 11 at Merle Hay Mall. The completed structures will be on public display for one week.