Three Shoreline businesses compete in Hopelink Can Madness Food Drive

Toni&Guy Hairdressing Academy joined by Sky Nursery and Sport Clips

Shoreline’s Toni&Guy Hairdressing Academy is hoping the third time is the charm in Hopelink Can Madness, the annual competitive food drive to stock the agency’s food banks. In the past two years, the Shoreline business has made a strong showing but fallen short of the final round.

This year, a full slate of 32 teams representing Shoreline, Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland includes two newcomers from Shoreline: Sky Nursery and Sport Clips will compete in addition to Toni&Guy. Now in its fifth year, the competition is aimed at stocking Hopelink food banks during the post-holiday season, when donations slow down.

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 bracket will advance to the following week. 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. 

Last year, 25 competitors in Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, Shoreline and Seattle collected more than 27,000 pounds of food for Hopelink food banks. The first weigh-in is set for March 7, and a winner will be named April 4.

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 or visit Hopelink online.