Students aim to fight hunger

Published 12:41 pm Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sixteen Austin High School students should be getting an “A” for ambition, adeptness and artistry after their latest project is completed next week.

AHS and Ellis Middle School are teaming up for “Operation Fighting Hunger Week,” and the high school Art Club has been preparing their project for several months.

The students will be constructing a canned food pyramid in the shape of an “A” Wednesday and Thursday in the commons area. The structure will be on display until Tuesday, when all 2,500 Hormel Homestyle Chili and Dinty Moore Stew cans will be donated to the Salvation Army food shelf.

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Ellis Middle School, led by teacher Karie Covert, is also holding a food drive in hopes of matching the high school’s 2,500 cans.

Barry Brobeck, Art Club advisor and art teacher, devised the “A” idea after his students previously attended the Flint Hills International Children’s Festival in downtown St. Paul, where they created an Eiffel Tower and state of Minnesota towers.

“It has always taken us two days,” Brobeck said of the towers’ construction.

With the busy art show season underway at AHS, he opted to bring the project home this year.

With two pallets of cans from Hormel Foods, the students will begin at 8 a.m. Wednesday and have the tower finished by 5 p.m. Thursday, followed by a reception.

The construction itself is really one step in the lengthy, difficult process, Brobeck said.

Project team leaders Danielle Jondal, Lani Sengsouriya and Sage Jungwirth have determined the structure’s dimensions and sketched drawings of the tower.

“There’s a lot to get done,” Jungwirth said.

The sophomore — who Brobeck calls “extremely gifted” and “invaluable” — help build the Minnesota can sculpture last year. She said she’s nervous about the project.

“You just have to kind of work past that,” Jungwirth said. “It’s not something you can just say, ‘Oh, we’ll get it done.’”

The four-tier, red and white tower will stand on a 8-by-8-foot plywood base and be 8 feet fall. The cans will be grouped into “bricks” and bound with packaging tape. All food shelf donations must have labels and be dent-free, Brobeck explained.

Brobeck said the project is really more than just art — it builds problem-solving skills and promotes community service. The students do not receive class credits or grades for participation.

“It’s been a real experience for them,” he said. “It’s involving the school; it’s involving the community. It’s not just about us.”