A different kind of March Madness is underway in the local business community as 32 different companies in Kirkland, Redmond and Shoreline compete to see who can collect the most cans of food for this month.
Now in its third year, the March Can Madness food drive was thought up by Ben Wobker of as a way to help re-stock the nonprofit's five food banks after the holidays, when donations typically decrease.
Last year's food drive brought in 9,809 pounds of food. in Redmond is the two-time defending champion, collecting 4,589 pounds last fall.
Like the basketball version of March Madness, the Hopelink contest uses a bracketing system to determine the winner. The amount of collected food is divided by each business' number of employees to even the playing field.
Here are the Kirkland and Redmond businesses and organizations participating in this year's food drive:
Kirkland
Redmond
The first weigh-in is March 9, and the competition will continue until the final round on March 30. The winner will be named April 6.
—Information from a Hopelink news release
