30 Eastside businesses bring in nearly 10,000 pounds of food for Hopelink

Thirty Eastside businesses gathered 9,809 pounds of food during Hopelink's second annual March Can Madness competitive food drive.

Hopelink also crowned a repeat champion this week: Hancock's Bakery in Redmond. The winning team collected 4,589 pounds of food - a 22 percent increase over the bakery's 2010 total.

Second place went to A Touch of Class Barbers in Kirkland, who brought in 1,400 pounds during the four-week competition.

The food drive was patterned after the famous national spring college basketball tournament, matching 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 ended on April 15.

The 9,809 pounds of food will boost Hopelink's food bank supplies, where demand has increased 12 percent over last year. In March, 374 families received 37,600 pounds of food from Hopelink's Redmond food bank alone. For more information on Hopelink and its services, call 425.869.6000 or visit www.hope-link.org.

Competing businesses were:

Bill the Butcher

Eastside Basketball Club

Computer Surplus

Element 5 Fitness

Everyday Athlete

Falco Sult Accounting

First Tech Credit Union: Redmond

Great Harvest Bread

Hallmark Realty

Hancock's Bakery

Hobi ? Kirkland Fire Department # 21

JJ Mahoney?s

Lake Washington Physical Therapy

Lift Pilate Studio

McDonald?s Book Exchange

Mikie?s Bagels

Oddfellows Grill

Palettes & Pairings

Palmer's East

Redmond Animal Hospital

Redmond Family Dentistry

Redmond Physical Therapy

Redmond Rotary

Romax Shoes

Roos Orthodontics

Simplicity Decor

SoulFood Books

The Closet

Touch of Class Barbershop

Washington Federal: Kirkland

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