8th Annual Kent Turkey Challenge fundraiser starts soon

Businesses and organizations can soon sign up to compete in the 8th annual Kent Turkey Challenge food bank fundraiser hosted by Torklift Central.

Organizers set a goal to raise $25,000 and 10,000 pounds of food for the Kent Food Bank to support families during Thanksgiving. Registration begins Saturday, Oct. 13, at torkliftcentral.com/turkey.

Over the past seven years, the community has raised $140,893 and 45,060 pounds of food through the turkey challenge. Last year’s top organizations and businesses were:

Ski’s Painting, Eberle Vivian, Shannon and Associates, Kent United Methodist Church, Express Employment Pros, Plemmons Industries, Grass Lake Elementary School, Kent Valley Hockey Association, Seattle/Tacoma KOA and Kent CrossFit.

“When businesses and organizations sign up to participate they get a wrapped donation box and signage to display in their stores,” said Torklift Central Owner Jack Kay in a media release. “Each year the competing businesses are featured on our website and the top winners of the challenge are presented with awards.”

This year there are several new additions to promote community involvement. This includes ice cream parties for classrooms that are pre-registered to join the challenge and electric Razor scooter prizes for the Turkey Challenge Coloring Contest.

Torklift Central also will host a Facebook contest to have participants share photos of their donations to be entered to win a free weekend trip to Las Vegas with airfare and hotel included.

The Kent Turkey Challenge began in 2011 when the food bank lost a significant amount of its funding.

Last year, due to the fundraising efforts, the Kent Food Bank was able to purchase fresh items including turkey, chicken, real butter, broccoli, green peppers, sweet potatoes and more.