Sculptures 'can-structed' to raise awareness for Gleaners

By Ryan Ermanni
Fox 2 News

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WJBK) -- You mom always told you never to play with food, but that is exactly what happened Monday at Fox 2.  'Can-struction' is the perfect way to bring awareness to a serious issue -- helping Gleaners Community Food Bank.

"'Can-struction' is a fun way to take a serious issue and get the word out about hey, you can make a difference," said Gerry Brisson with Gleaners.

'Can-struction' is a sculpture competition made of cans.  The folks at Albert Kahn won it for their rendition of Play-Doh.

"Gleaners is such... a good group to be involved with.  They have a great mission, but they have great people, so it's really easy to volunteer," said Stephen White with Albert Kahn Associates, Inc.

Staggering numbers

Here are some staggering numbers to keep in mind.  One in four children live in poverty in Michigan, and 317,000 of those children live in Southeast Michigan.  They get either free or reduced-cost lunch at school, but over the holiday break especially times can be tough.

"We will do three million more meals between now and December 31st just in that chunk of time.  Normally we do about 100,000 meals a day.  That grows and shrinks as demand rises and shrinks, and again school has a lot to do with that, but there (are) other things, too," Brisson said.  "We keep a really close tab on what are the poverty numbers, what are the employment numbers to try to do as good a job as we can predicting what that demand is going to be."

For the families that receive help from you through Gleaners, "As a mother and a wife, some days I would look in the fridge and just shake my head, but then there's Gleaners.  Gleaners, it's the ray of hope when things seem dim," said Annysia Davis Dunstan.

Double Your Donation Day

All day Monday it's Double Your Donation Day.

"Double Your Donation Day -- we have Walmart sponsoring today.  We have donors in the background who are going to leverage every dollar, dollar for dollar, so that anything people give, normally a dollar gets three meals for Gleaners, which is a pretty good deal, today it's six meals because of those leveraged dollars.  So anything you give today will produce six meals for a hungry neighbor," said Brisson.

If you would like to make a donation, Monday is the day to do so.  To donate, call 1-866-GLEANER or visit www.gcfb.org.