Two separate events on Saturday, Aug. 29 offer Wilmington residents an opportunity to combat hunger. At 9 a.m. at UNCW, the student-athlete advisory committee will coordinate an expected 450 volunteers, who will assemble boxed meals which will be sent to school children in Haiti, Kenya, and Nicaragua. UNCW is partnering with UNC Chapel Hill, N.C. State, and Eastern Carolina University to reach the goal of giving a million meals to combat global hunger. This project called Stop Hunger Now was established by UNCW alumnus Ray Buchanan in 1998 and has provided 15 million meals to more than 70 countries worldwide. On Saturday Wilmington volunteers will assemble 100,000 meals at Trask Coliseum from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

At 10 a.m., in the Sears wing of Independence Mall, seven teams of building and design professionals will compete against each other to build the most impressive sculpture out of donated cans of food. The competition is part of an international event called CANstruction, which raises awareness and donations to combat hunger. It will be the first time the event will be held in Wilmington.

“We knew that the food bank was having a hard time because of the economy,” said Michelle Marks, executive director of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Wilmington, who will host the event. AIA Wilmington is a professional organization with about 110 local architects.

The seven local teams which will compete on Saturday are comprised of business people from the following companies: LS3P, the Army Corps of Engineers, B&O Design Studio, ILM Design, Big Sky Design, Monteith Construction, Commercial Interior Resources, Right Angle Engineering, John Wojciechowski Architect, WK Dickson, and proVision Architecture in Currie.

Each team is collecting donations of canned food, which will be given to the food bank of eastern North Carolina following the competition.

The public is welcome to watch the construction on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and vote for their favorite sculpture. A panel of judges will award the winning team on Thursday, Sept. 3.