“Art for Food”

By LAUREN SALLEE

The Baytown Sun

BAYTOWN – Members from four local service organizations will put on engineering caps Saturday to construct art with canned food in the name of fighting hunger.

Baytown’s first Art for Food project is a community effort to replenish local pantries with nonperishable items after the holidays.

The Rotary Club of Baytown, Baytown Kiwanis Club, Pilot Club and Junior Forum will compete against each other for the contest on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the San Jacinto Mall.

Love in the Name of Christ, an area volunteer organization that offers services to families in need, will gather food and contributions from the design projects, to support local food pantries.

Votes from the community determine the Art for Food winner.

Residents can vote by stopping by the west wing of Mervyn’s and contributing a $1 for a vote.

“It is going to be a fun rivalry between local service organizations,” project chair David Daspit said. “This is a good time of the year to be helping to restock the pantries.”

About 363 cans of pork and beans will serve as the foundation for The Rotary Club of Baytown’s 10-foot, and 350-pound “Gas Fired Rotary Rocket.”

“It will be quite a site to see,” Daspit said of the Rotary’s rocket, which will be equipped with lights and smoke effects.

Daspit said Rotary members who headed the rocket’s construction, Robert Byrd, Harry Fritzenschaft and Cherie Laughlin, have spend about a week organizing engineering sessions.

Each construction crew from the clubs will be on location to build the exhibits before the contest starts. Votes will be counted by 2 p.m.

Other design projects include the Fred Hartman Bridge constructed by The Pilot Club, the U.S. flag designed by the Baytown Kiwanis Club and a movie production clapperboard by the Baytown Junior Forum.

Gary Englert heads the construction for the Kiwanis Club and said his team is still working to gather all the soup cans needed for the flag project.

About eight members of the club have been working on the design phase of the display that will be made primarily from cans of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, Englert said.

“We wanted to use something that could be well utilized,” Englert said.  

Service Organizations across the United States hold similar projects, organized to raise money and nonperishables for food pantries.

By Lauren Sallee
Baytown Sun

Published January 25, 2004

BAYTOWN — Members from four local service organizations constructed a rocket and a flag, a bridge and movie production equipment with more than 2,057 canned goods and nonperishable items.

The area’s first Art for Food project raised $1,272 and gathered more than 2,057 canned goods to benefit local food pantries on Saturday.

Baytonian Wilma Binz brought two children to enjoy the displays in the Mervyn’s wing of San Jacinto Mall.

“Next year I hope other organizations will join in on this, because it is a lot of fun,” Binz said.

The Rotary Club of Baytown, Baytown Kiwanis Club, Pilot Club and Baytown Junior Forum competed against each other for the best display, which was judged by the community.

Passersby contributed at least $1 per vote for their favorite exhibit. It took 480 cans of Campbell’s soup cans for the Kiwanis to construct its American flag, but it proved worthwhile as contributors voted it the favorite of the four creations.

Gary Englert, head of construction for the club, said he had to make another stop by the grocery store for more soup cans before the building could begin.

David Daspit was head of the Rotary’s Gas Fired Rocket, formed with 363 cans of pork and beans.

“It has been a great first year for the joint project between the service organizations,” Daspit said.

Daspit said this is a perfect time of year to hold the event because area pantries are running low on supplies after the holidays.

Donations and canned goods collected from the project will be delivered to Love in the Name of Christ, an area volunteer organization that offers services to families in need, which will distribute the proceeds to area food pantries.

Jill Gibson with the Baytown Junior Forum said her group is already gathering ideas for a canned construction next year.

The group put in about 240 cans of Ranch Style Beans as the station for a movie production clapper.

“Love in the Name of Christ is one of our charities we support anyway, so we thought this was another way to show our support,” president of the group Susan Tolleson said.

Crackers for a roadway and rice for water set the scene for the Fred Hartman Bridge designed by the Pilot Club.

Service organizations across the United States hold similar projects organized for the same purposes throughout other communities.