After driving over 4000 kilometers and playing hockey games in five other cities, Five Hole for Food (FHFF) rolled into Calgary on Monday afternoon looking to lean on Calgary’s generous nature to benefit the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank. The city responded by setting a new donation record on the tour.
The brainchild of Vancouver native Richard Loat, FHFF is a cross-Canada tour that is driving from Montreal to Vancouver, stopping in nine cities over 10 days to raise food for local food banks by holding street hockey games and asking players for donations.
Regina had set the bar for the most poundage donated in a single city with 545 lbs. of food on Sunday. Calgary and its competitive nature wasn’t going to be beat, however, and posted the new FHFF record of 640 lbs. of food for the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank.
“Calgary has set the bar for the rest of the trip. They’ve raised more food than any stop on the trip and now the challenge is set for Victoria and Vancouver to beat 640 lbs. of food,” Loat said after the game.
The Calgary game had a spin on it, pitting Canucks fans against Flames fans. Even though the NHL season is months away, the rivalry was alive and well as players dished out some trash talking before the ball was dropped and tried to outdo each other with their play and food donations. Unfortunately for the hometown team, the Canucks fans narrowly took the game by a score of 11-10.
While Loat is extremely pleased with the turnout this year, he sees the Calgary stop growing greatly over the coming years.
“Being the first year of the event we wanted to make as big of an impact as we could,” he said. “It was absolutely fantastic to see Flames fans and Canucks fans put aside their loyalties and come together as fans of the sport to help the community. 640 lbs is outstanding and it sets the bar for next year.”
Loat and his co-pilot Vic Lo headed up to Edmonton on Tuesday and Calgary managed to blow away its provincial rival by over 500 lbs. of food, holding onto the record with only Victoria and Vancouver remaining on the trip.
FHFF wraps up its whirlwind tour of Canada on Friday when Loat and Lo will hit Granville Street in Vancouver for the final game.
Photo credit: Five Hole for Food
Tags: Eau Claire, Street Hockey
