There are 10,000 cans of food sitting in the middle of Nittany Mall. Here's why

You'd be surprised what you can make with a simple can of tuna — a beloved Pixar character, for instance.

Wall-E was one of six animated creations rendered in canned goods on Thursday somewhere between Macy's and Planet Fitness courtesy of Canstruction, an international food charity competition.

The State College event is a partnership between Nittany Mall, Hoffman Leakey Architects and Wegmans and the rules are pretty simple (if you're an architect, engineer or experienced construction professional).

Each statue has to be built entirely from canned goods with cardboard and maybe a little bit of tape as the only support mechanism. The finished products will — hopefully — remain standing until April 15, when all 10,000 cans will be donated to the State College Food Bank.

Lisa Hayes, director of marketing at Hoffman Leakey Architects, helped organize Thursday's build-off. The final tally was six teams composed of representatives from 11 different local companies and organizations.

"We knew that this would be a success. We knew people would support it," Hayes said.

She was hoping that passing mall walkers were struck by more than just the sight of a house that looks remarkably like the one one from "Up" if it were made from cans of black beans.

Hayes would like it to serve as a reminder of the importance of supporting both food banks and careers in the sciences. On Thursday, she settled for a few questions from random passerby.

"We've had the opportunity to talk about what we're doing and why we're doing it," Hayes said.

The team that built Wall-E was comprised of employees from Providence Engineering and Massaro Construction Management Services. Prior to the build, they scouted the aisles of Wegmans for cans that matched the robot's distinctive color scheme and devised templates on paper that painstakingly laid out the placement of each item.

"We've got to figure out how to get the head and neck to fit on top of the body," David Bernhardt of Providence Engineering said.

Photos of the finished statues will be available to view on Canstruction State College's Facebook and Instagram pages, where visitors can vote for their favorite work of canned art.

This story was originally published April 5, 2018 at 3:53 PM with the headline "There are 10,000 cans of food sitting in the middle of Nittany Mall. Here's why."