Monday, April 04, 2016 - After acing the Hopelink Can Madness championship in the first three years of the competition, Hancock’s Bakery of Redmond struggled to reach the top spot in subsequent tournaments. This year – the seventh – the inaugural winner returned. On Friday (April 1), Hancock’s held off a strong showing by a rookie team from the City of Redmond to claim the title in Hopelink’s annual competitive food drive.
In the final round, Hancock’s brought in 4,550 pounds of food and $928 in cash, while City of Redmond collected 5,130 pounds of food and $2,837 this week. Although the second-place finisher brought in more in donations, they fell short in total points, as the tournament uses a denominator based on the number of employees to convert pounds to points and ensure a level playing field.
During the five-week tournament, 32 businesses in Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, Shoreline and Sammamish collected a total of 50,746 pounds of food and $19,925 cash – the most ever raised during one year of the competition.
Hopelink Can Madness is a bracketed competition similar to the national spring college basketball tournament, matching businesses in weekly contests to see which one can bring in the most food. The annual food drive was created seven years ago as a way to help offset the traditional decline in donations after the holidays, while enabling local businesses to compete in a fun, friendly tournament.
Since 2010, the competition has brought in 189,777 pounds of food and $33,486 in cash for Hopelink food banks, which is enough to provide more than 150,000 meals for local families.
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Since 1971, Hopelink has served homeless and low-income families, children, seniors and people with disabilities in north and east King County by promoting self-sufficiency for all members of our community and helping people make lasting change. Hopelink assists people with meeting their needs for food, shelter, homelessness prevention, family development and stabilization, transportation and adult literacy skills. For more information on Hopelink and its services, call 425.869.6000.
