Hoosier Hill organizes can sculptures for fundraiser

A large pumpkin sat in a hallway of College Mall.

It would be a typical Halloween decoration, except this one is built entirely of canned foods.

The Hoosier Hills Food Bank has started its second year of the “Hunger is Scary” Canstruction event, building Halloween-themed structures using donated canned foods.

Three organizations will battle for this year’s best structure, armed with canned peas and beans.

The groups plan to collect a large amount of cans Oct. 19-26 and use them to build a Halloween object.

“All of the food donations made will go to Hoosier Hills Food Bank and then be distributed to our other 97 agencies,” said Jake Bruner, director of development and administration at Hoosier Hills.

Mall visitors can vote during the week for the most popular structure to win the People’s Choice Award.

A panel of judges will decide the winners for “Best Use of Labels,” “Best Meal” and other categories, according to a press release.

The winners of the best-completed structures and awards will be announced Oct. 27, in time for the annual “Mall-O-Ween” trick or treat event.

“It doesn’t matter what types of food are donated,” Bruner said. “The award for ‘Best Meal’ is how the structure pairs the food together, creating a meal with beans, corn, rice, et cetera, so it is taken into effect.”

One structure currently under construction is the “Can-tom of the Opera,” designed by the Pinnacle School and advised by the City of Bloomington Engineering.

Other structures include “Bat-can,” built by Beta Sigma Psi and lead by Strauser Construction, and a “Unicef Pumpkin” constructed by the Kiwanis Club and Key Club advised by Bender Lumber and Larry Ingram.

The structures will remain standing throughout Halloween.

Funded by local organizations such as Kroger, City of Bloomington and College Mall, the construction project is a nationwide event, Bruner said.

“The model idea comes from the Canstruction, Inc.,” he said. “Food banks and other organizations around the country participate each year at different times.”

Canstruction is a nonprofit organization described as “the world’s most unique food charity,” according to its website. The nonprofit organization travels to cities all over the U.S. to build can creations and to inspire the public to work together to collect food and funds to help those in need.

Last year, Hoosier Hills sponsored the first Canstruction in Bloomington.

The 2,894 volunteers spend more than 6,158 hours creating the organization’s monthly events and helping Bloomington’s food insecure families, according to Hoosier Hills’ statistics.

In addition to donations from the event, Hoosier Hills received more than $3,500,000 worth of donated food in 2011.

“We collected approximately 9,000 pounds of food last year,” Bruner said. “We are hoping to beat that once the projects begin.”