Torklift Central employee Kerstin Stokes, Camico Rivon, assistant director of the Kent Food Bank and Jeniece Choate, executive director of the Kent Food Bank sort through donations collected during the Kent Turkey Challenge at the Kent Food Bank.

Oct. 7 to Nov. 18 marked our annual Thanksgiving food drive, the Annual Kent Turkey Challenge which was celebrating nine years of supporting the Kent Food Bank. Now that the challenge has officially concluded, we wanted to say thank you to all the businesses and people who participated and made this Kent food drive so successful.

Below are the official results of the 9th Annual Kent Turkey Challenge and who the leaders of the most food and monetary donations were.

The Numbers
Thanks to our giving and charitable community, the 9th Annual Kent Turkey Challenge has reached $175,165 and 66,139 pounds of food for the Kent Food Bank over the past nine years. Through our effort to fight hunger this Thanksgiving, we’re able to help feed thousands of families this year.

“We are grateful to facilitate the Kent Turkey Challenge and continue to be very pleased with our local community and the outpouring of their generous donations.”

– Jack Kay, Owner of Torklift Central 

The Leaders

Families waiting in line at the Kent Food Bank to receive their donations for Thanksgiving dinner.

A friendly competition between the businesses and organizations in Kent, Wash., we like to recognize every individual contribution of each company on our Turkey Challenge page. We would like to especially thank the top five businesses in each category that donated. Through their hard work and fundraising efforts, these top businesses in each category helped support a goal to make sure no Kent families would go hungry this Thanksgiving.

Listed below are the top five companies that raised the most food donations and the top five organizations that raised the most monetary donations:

TOP 5 BUSINESSES THAT COLLECTED THE MOST MONEY:

  • Eberle Vivian – $4,415
  • Pacific Power Group - $3,355
  • Pegasus Northwest Inc. - $1,875
  • Chateau at Valley Center, residents and employees - $1,775
  • Kent United Methodist Church – $1,190

Torklift Central provided up to $315 in matching donations to each of the top five donators.

TOP 5 BUSINESSES THAT COLLECTED THE MOST FOOD:

  • Grass Lake Elementary School – 1,863 items
  • Seattle/Tacoma KOA – 1,791 items
  • Kent CrossFit – 1,172 items
  • Anytime Fitness – 480 items
  • Blinker Tavern – 436 items

Families waiting in line at the Kent Food Bank.

The Food Bank volunteers distributed the donations on Nov. 25-26, 2019 to hundreds of families. All the donations from this event go directly to the Kent Food Bank. The Kent Food Bank reports that every $10 donation can feed a family of four people for four days. Due to the success of the Kent Turkey Challenge this year, the Kent Food Bank was also able to purchase additional fresh food items to pass out to families this year and in greater quantity than last year.

“We bought butter, sweet potatoes, celery, broccoli, green peppers and potatoes and onions this year along with half gallon of milk, and a dozen eggs, and of course turkeys. In previous years, we've done 6 eggs and pints of milk.  Each year the drive has enabled the Food Bank to provide larger quantities of these items.”

– Jeniece Choate, Executive Director of the Kent Food Bank

We appreciate all the organizations and members of the community that could make the 9th Annual Kent Turkey Challenge the best one yet. We look forward to working with everyone again next year to make the 10th Annual Kent Turkey Challenge the best one yet!

Torklift Central
315 Central Ave N Kent, WA 98032
[email protected]
877-373-9195
www.torkliftcentral.com

 

kerstinWritten by Kerstin Stokes:
As a graduate from the College of Idaho with a B.A. in both History and Art, Kerstin has found her passion for writing and marketing, and has loved every minute of working for Torklift for over 4 years. She enjoys looking up tasty recipes for baking and daydreaming about future travels.