Local businesses help out with March Can Madness food drive | Community Spirit

Last month fifteen businesses competed in four-week food collection tournament, bringing in a total of 7,791 pounds of food for Hopelink, the largest social services agency serving east and north King County.

The first annual March Can Madness competitive food drive, the brainchild of Hopelink supporter Ben Wobker, owner of Redmond Physical Therapy, was patterned after the famous national spring college basketball tournament. It matched up businesses in weekly competitions to see which one could bring in the most food. Each week, the winning business in every pairing or “bracket” advanced to the following week.

The championship round, which ended on March 26, came down to Hancock’s Bakery against McDonald’s Book Exchange, with the bakery taking home the trophy. Hancock’s Bakery brought in a total of 3,760 pounds of food, nearly half of the total, thanks to their customers and friends in their faith community.

The food is a welcome boost to Hopelink’s food bank supplies, which always dwindle at this time of the year, even as need continues to climb due to the economy. In February, 371 Redmond households received 45,000 pounds of food from Hopelink’s Redmond food bank alone.

“From the grassroots start of this competition, to the 7,791 pounds the businesses brought in, to the level of excitement and fun it generated, March Can Madness was a tremendous success,” said Denise Stephens, Hopelink’s Public Relations Specialist. “We are grateful to everyone involved, especially Ben Wobker for dreaming it up, and plan to make this an annual event. We may even try to expand it to 32 businesses next year.”

Competing businesses included:

• Bikram Yoga Redmond
• Charter Bank
• Dr. Ghislaine Robert
• Eastside Basketball Club
• Evergreen Primary Care Clinic at Redmond
• Falco Sult
• Foot Solutions
• Foot Zone
• Hancock's Bakery
• McDonald’s Book Exchange
• Palmer's East
• Redmond Family Dentistry
• Redmond Physical Therapy
• Roos Orthodontics
• VCA Redwood Animal Hospital