Will You Play Hockey For Food?

This is nothing design-related, but it is hockey-related. There’s an organization called Five Hole For Food that I like to support, and I think you’d be interested too. Basically, they organize games of street hockey in support of local food banks in cities across the continent. They just played a game in Central Park in NYC for International Canada Day celebrations and are about to embark – starting tomorrow – on their annual cross-Canada summer tour. Playing in the game is completely open to the public and you just need to bring your hockey stick and a donation for the food bank (food or money). It’s all ages, all skill levels, and trust me, it’s a lot of fun. I’ve participated in a few of the games.

This year, their goal is to raise 250,000 lbs of food for food banks across Canada. That’s a quarter of a million pounds of food in just 17 days. Crazy, but doable, with your help.

If you live in or near any of the following cities, I highly recommend you grab your stick and a donation for your local food bank and have some fun playing some street hockey:

St. John’s, NF – July 3rd
Halifax, NS – July 5th
Charlottetown, PEI – July 6th
Saint John, NS – July 7th
Montreal, QC – July 9th
Ottawa, ON – July 10th
Toronto, ON – July 11th
Winnipeg, MB – July 13th
Regina, SK – July 14th
Calgary, AB – July 16th
Edmonton, AB – July 17th
Victoria, BC – July 19th
Vancouver, BC – July 20th

Visit their website to get more information about the exact location and times for each city.

Even if you’re not in or around any of these cities – or live in another country – keep your eyes on them, as they’re spreading out to more and more locations outside of their annual Canadian summer tour, like the afore-mentioned NYC. They were also in Austin, TX for the South By Southwest Festival and Saskatoon during the Memorial Cup tournament, and there’s plans for more. They might be coming to a city near you very soon.

I’ll be participating in both the Victoria and Vancouver games, so if you see me there, feel free to say hi! And let me know what you think of their logo, website, t-shirts, marketing collateral, posters, etc, etc – I designed them all.

They’re an organization worth supporting, as you’ll be supporting the less fortunate in your community and you’ll have fun doing it. What’s better than that? Here’s the 2013 video about them and their work: