Local businesses are invited to sign up for Hopelink’s sixth annual Can Madness competitive food drive between now and Feb. 26. The fun and friendly tournament is aimed at replenishing the Redmond-based nonprofit’s five food banks during the challenging late-winter months.

Last year, 32 businesses in Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue and Shoreline collected nearly 30,000 pounds of food and almost $3,000 in cash during the five-week, single-elimination tournament. Redmond Physical Therapy took home the trophy, defeating JJ Mahoney’s Irish Pub in the final round.

To ensure that groups 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.

The tournament will run from March 1 through April 3.

Hopelink Can Madness is a bracketed competition similar to the national spring college basketball tournament, matching businesses in weekly contests to see which one can bring in the most food. The annual food drive was created six years ago as a way to help offset the traditional decline in donations after the holidays, while enabling local businesses to compete for the title. Since 2010, the competition has brought in 91,035 pounds of food and $8,044 in cash.

For more information or to register: https://www.hope-link.org/events/canmadness or contact Jenny Dreyfuss Ibrahim at jdreyfuss@hope-link.org or at (425) 897-3710.