Thirty-two local businesses are off and running in Hopelink’s eighth annual Can Madness competitive food drive to help stock the agency’s five food banks.

Patterned after the national spring college basketball tournament, the competition matches businesses together in pairs to see which can bring in the most food, with one winner from each two-member bracket advancing to the following week. The first weigh-in will take place March 10 and the competition will continue until one winner is crowned April 7.

This year, defending champion Hancock’s Bakery of Redmond and 2016 runner-up City of Redmond are joined by 11 other Redmond teams, as well as seven businesses from Kirkland and three from Bellevue. Five Shoreline businesses are also in the competition this year, along with three from Seattle and one team from Bothell.

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 and funds collected each Friday by a denominator that reflects the size of the business.

In addition to collecting food donations, teams will be able to raise funds through interactive web pages designed for each team. Community members can support their favorite team here: hopelink.org/can-madness

The annual drive offers a way for local businesses to help bolster Hopelink food banks during a time of year when holiday donations traditionally taper off but demand remains high. Last year, 32 businesses in Redmond, Kirkland, Bellevue, Sammamish and Shoreline collected more than 50,000 pounds of food and nearly $20,000 – the most ever raised during one year of the competition.

Hopelink Can Madness 2017 participants:

Redmond

Accenture

City of Redmond

CycleBar Redmond Town Center

Fairwinds-Redmond

Falco Sult

Hancock’s Bakery

Home Team Real Estate

Magellan Architects

McDonald’s Book Exchange

The Spur Group

Umpqua Bank Redmond

VCA Redmond Animal Hospital

Wyndam Vacation Ownership

Kirkland

ATG Stores

Hallmark Realty

Ilovekickboxing

Lake Washington Physical Therapy – Houghton

Lake Washington Physical Therapy – Downtown Kirkland

Touch of Class Barbershop

Xtreme Consulting Group, Inc.

Shoreline

Doug’s NW Cadillac

First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach

Highland Ice Arena

Menchie’s Shoreline

OAC Services

Bellevue

Bellevue Brewing Company

QBSI, A Xerox Company

TJ Maxx – Factoria

Seattle

Magnum Self Storage

Point It Digital Marketing

Theo Chocolate

Bothell

Winshuttle LLC