Businesses, churches, schools and other groups blew away the goals this year for food and cash donations to the Kent Food Bank during the fourth annual Kent Turkey Challenge.
The friendly competition raised 10,820 pounds of canned food and $22,418, said Katie Brown, marketing director for Torklift Central, which organizes the drive to provide Thanksgiving meals for people who come to the Food Bank. Sixty-six businesses participated in the challenge that started in early October.
Organizers set goals this year of 4,000 pounds of food and $17,000 after raising 2,784 pounds of food and $9,978 in 2013.
“It’s fantastic based on the original goal for how many pounds we were going to try to collect and the total dollar figure that we collected at more than $22,000,” said Jack Kay, owner of Torklift Central, whose employees collected the food from various businesses and delivered it last week to the Food Bank.
Jeniece Choate, executive director of the Kent Food Bank sporting a Seahawks No. 12 jersey, came away impressed and thankful for the donations.
“It’s tremendous,” Choate said. “When it first started we had lost a bunch of our (federal, state government) funding that was going to seriously impact our holiday distribution. Torklift stepped up to fill that gap for us and each year it has grown and just made our holiday distribution exceptional.
“The families that are receiving the food are overjoyed when they know they are receiving a turkey and all of the fixings they need to have a holiday meal with their family and friends.”
People showed up on Tuesday at the Food Bank for the distribution of the holiday food.
“We estimate more than 1,000 people will come and we will be able to serve all of them,” Choate said.
Kay said the people of Kent were very giving of food and cash this year.
“I think it’s a picture of the community coming together,” he said. “When you have a common goal and a unified effort that’s what you end up with. I think the volume of donations are a great representative of the heart of this community and the people that contributed.”
The Seattle/Tacoma KOA campground supported the challenge by asking travelers who stayed at the Kent site to donate. Visitors were greeted with a Turkey Challenge donation box and a thermostat graph that tracked the KOA’s goals.
“A lot of us take for granted being able to sit around the table and have a nice meal,” Kay said. “The people that come here it’s so many stories from cancer to mental illness to a lost job or whatever. There’s hundreds of reasons why people need help at different times. To have the community reach out and make a difference like this is wonderful.”
Kent Turkey Challenge
Top 5 most cans collected
• Seattle/Tacoma KOA: 2,830 pounds
• Ski’s Painting Inc.: 2,755
• Springbrook Elementary: 1,873
• Kent Valley Hockey Association: 693
• Grass Lake Elementary: 626
Top 5 most money collected
• Torklift Central: $4,630
• Ski’s Painting Inc.: $4,126
• Eberle Vivian: $3,610
• Kent United Methodist: $2,323
• Great American Casino: $1,460
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