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Various companies and groups help build nine unique images out of cans of food.

Tom Bechman 1, Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

August 26, 2015

2 Min Read

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's…no, it's not Superman. It's a weird looking character made out of canned food. In fact there were nine such creations on display at the 2015 Indiana State Fair, each built by a different team of volunteers, many of them from companies donating time for this effort to raise food for needy people.

Related: There Are Ways To Help The Hungry

You needed Superman's x-ray vision to find the display this year. While it has been a feature of the fair for several years, like the cheese sculpture, it has a new home this year.

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Starting out in the Horticulture Building, it's now in the Harvest Pavilion. It was formerly the DuPont Food Pavilion, located next to the Indiana State fair Administration Building on the northwest corner of the fair complex.

The Canstruction project is sponsored by Gleaner's Food Bank, one of the largest food banks in Indiana. It serves thousands of people in need of food. Gleaners calculated that this year's effort resulted in nine can-type structures built from 36,000 cans of food.

The Gleaners folks also calculated that the food raised through donations in this project would provide 22,000 meals to hungry people in Indiana.

One exhibit was a 'See 'n Say' child's toy replica built out of cans. The saying was: "Farmer says…help feed the hungry." Another exhibit featured a map of the state of Indiana done in cans, with the block letters FFA inside the map.

One of the crowd favorites was a take on the popular Minions. These minions were made to resemble ears of corn. There was also a canned display meant to resemble a toy built with Legos, and even one displaying the American Gothic couple of old, complete with pitchfork.

About the Author(s)

Tom Bechman 1

Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

Tom Bechman is an important cog in the Farm Progress machinery. In addition to serving as editor of Indiana Prairie Farmer, Tom is nationally known for his coverage of Midwest agronomy, conservation, no-till farming, farm management, farm safety, high-tech farming and personal property tax relief. His byline appears monthly in many of the 18 state and regional farm magazines published by Farm Progress.

"I consider it my responsibility and opportunity as a farm magazine editor to supply useful information that will help today's farm families survive and thrive," the veteran editor says.

Tom graduated from Whiteland (Ind.) High School, earned his B.S. in animal science and agricultural education from Purdue University in 1975 and an M.S. in dairy nutrition two years later. He first joined the magazine as a field editor in 1981 after four years as a vocational agriculture teacher.

Tom enjoys interacting with farm families, university specialists and industry leaders, gathering and sifting through loads of information available in agriculture today. "Whenever I find a new idea or a new thought that could either improve someone's life or their income, I consider it a personal challenge to discover how to present it in the most useful form, " he says.

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