Every year the company Vanessa works for participates in an event call Canstruction.  Here is a little write up of what its about:

CANSTRUCTION combines the competitive spirit of a design/build competition with a unique way to help feed hungry people. Competing teams, lead by architects and engineers, showcase their talents by designing giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods. At the close of the exhibitions all of the food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.
                     We both thought it was a cool idea and wanted to check it out.  But of course like everything we do in New York something simple turned into an ordeal.  We headed off to where Vanessa thought the Canstruction thing was going to be.  Of course when we got there Canstruction was nowhere to be found.  After Vanessa made several phone calls we found out we were only like 20 blocks away.  Off we went walking towards the blazing sun to Canstruction while Vanessa bitched about not being able to see and how she wasn’t going to make it.  Somehow we got there and it was well worth it.  
               It was being held at the NY Design Center.  We got a map that listed all the Canstructions and the floors they were on.  We started on the top floor and worked our way down.  The way the Design Center is set up is like a whole lot of department stores.  From what I could figure out different designers had space where they had furniture on display.  Usually 5 to 8 show rooms per floor.  In the middle of the furniture there would be a Canstruction thing standing.  Now what V and I weren’t planning on is all the cool furniture we would be seeing.  This stuff was AWESOME.  It makes you want to be wealthy so you could afford these incredibly designed couches, chairs and tables and such.  Some of the Canstructions were pretty cool too.  Basically the way it worked was you would walk up to a stack of cans and try to figure out what it was.  Some of it was obvious but others took serious imagination to figure out.  As a whole it was pretty cool and I hope the people that get the food like canned sardines because that seemed to be the favorite among Canstruction designers.