The sixth annual Kent Turkey Challenge raised $30,243 and 8,651 pounds of food this year, marking the event’s biggest success to date.
Organizers set a goal to raise $25,000 for the Kent Food Bank to feed families during Thanksgiving. Over the past six years the challenge has raised $111,976 and 33,560 pounds of food.
“We are very honored to facilitate the Kent Turkey Challenge and continue to be very proud of our local community and the outpouring of their generous donations that have again exceeded our goals,” said Torklift Central owner Jack Kay in a media release. “We blew past the goal of $25,000 and made a huge difference for local families.”
One hundred percent of the donations go to the Kent Food Bank. For every $10 donation, the Food Bank reports it can feed a family of four people for four days.
“This year, we had the single largest monetary donation since the beginning of the Kent Turkey Challenge and that was from Ski’s Painting for about $10,000,” Kay said.
“We love the fact that it’s local and for the community and we’ve participated for four years now,” said Jesse Ficks, Ski’s Painting vice president of sales and finance. “We’ve been blessed with this opportunity and we strive to help the community.”
The top five of monetary donations were Ski’s Painting with $10,155, Eberle Vivian with $4,155, Shannon and Associates with $2,585, Kent United Methodist Church with $2,506 and Pacific Power Group with $2,155.
As a thank you to everyone for their participation in this community event, Torklift Central distributed its $2,310 in donations to businesses chosen at random. Money distributed did not effect rankings of the challenge.
Pacific Power Group takes first place in the food donations with 954 food items.
“Pacific Power Group in general always tries to give back to the community and this one kind of fell into our lap,” said Dawna Yntema, sales administrative manager. “Being a part of the community is fun and we make the event an inter-department challenge. It gives everyone the opportunity to give back and have a healthy internal competition. It’s also encouraged our branches in other locations to challenge our office for donations as well to their local food banks.”
Other leaders of food donations included Grass Lake Elementary School with 799 items, Kent Valley Hockey Association with 720 items, Seattle/Tacoma KOA with 611 items and Plemmons Industries with 600 items.
“Because of the Turkey Challenge this year, we were able to purchase fresh items to pass out in addition to turkeys and chicken,” said Jeniece Choate, executive director of the Kent Food Bank. “This includes real butter, fresh celery and fresh sweet potatoes.”
To see the complete list of business donations for the 6th Annual Kent Turkey Challenge, visit torkliftcentral.com/turkey.
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