Recruiting under way for fifth annual Hopelink Can Madness

Published 6:42 pm Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Businesses have until Feb. 26 to sign up for Hopelink’s fifth annual Can Madness competitive food drive, with the first weigh-in set for March 7.

The drive is patterned after the famous national spring college basketball tournament, matching businesses in weekly competitions to see which can bring in the most food. Each week, the winning business in every pairing or “bracket” advances to the following week.  Last year, 25 competitors in Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, Shoreline and Seattle collected more than 27,000 pounds of food for Hopelink food banks. In the final round, Guild Mortgage of Kirkland knocked off three-time champion Hancock’s Bakery of Redmond, bringing in more than 12,000 pounds of food over the five-week tournament.

To ensure that businesses of all sizes are able to compete on a level playing field, the competition uses a unique scoring system that divides the number of pounds of food collected each Friday by a denominator that reflects the size of the business.

This year’s winner will be crowned April 4.

For more information or to register, visit www.hope-link.org/events/hopelink_can_madness//?events/canmadness/