It has all the excitement of the Grey Cup on a good year, and even comes with a golden trophy—the second annual Councillors’ Challenge kicked off on Nov. 30, marking 10 days of Calgary’s wards competing to raise the most donations for the Calgary Food Bank.

The rules for the first part of the competition were simple: Teams of three from each Councillor’s office – including the councillor themselves – raced in two halves to bag as many cans of tomatoes, beans, fruit, and taco shell boxes as they could.

The winner from Thursday received an extra 300-pound bonus to their ward’s total collection goal by the end of Dec. 10. The overall winner will get the much coveted Golden Lettuce Award.

Calgary Food Bank CEO Melissa From issued an additional challenge to the teams, asking them to try and fill two bins of bags each, representing the entirety of how many bags would be needed to fill emergency hampers in a day at the food bank.

“Our demand is higher than ever, we’re serving up to 700 Calgary households every day with food,” said From.

“Each one of these bins is about 600 pounds of food, and we will go through several of these bins in our distribution centre today.”

Each of the bags from the challenge will be paired with fresh produce, dairy, and protein—something From said would allow each of the hamper recipients to have a healthy and filling taco meal.

“Those food hampers are not just the dry goods that you see here today, and not just the dry goods that you see at your local food drives in your grocery store. We are always putting 30 per cent fresh produce and 30 per cent healthy proteins into every food hamper that goes out into our community.”

Challenge accepted

At the beginning of the challenge, last year’s winner Ward 5 Councillor Raj Dhaliwal had to give up the Golden Lettuce trophy, eliciting a big mock “no!”

Still, with everything to play for this year, there were some surprising turnarounds. Last year’s second-place finisher in the bag race, Ward 3 Councillor Jasmine Mian, joked that this year there was a chance for victory—even without the pair of Olympic athletes she had on her team.

“There was definitely, I think some motivation from last year, because we we ended up coming to second on of the first day and so we’re like ‘let’s try and get that win,'” Mian said.

“But it’s all in good fun for the community, and today kicks off in 10 more days of fundraising and food donation that’s going to go to help people who deserve it. So I make a lot of jokes, but it is for a good cause.”

Ward 11 Councillor Kourtney Penner, whose ward came second overall in last year’s challenge, said that she was looking for a win this year.

“I’m definitely feeling good, and really what it’s going to be about is the community coming out and supporting in the next 10 days,” she said.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek joked that she and her team had been doing bicep curls with tomato cans to get ready for the competition this year. Although she lamented that as mayor she wasn’t able to win the Golden Lettuce Award.

“I think council has always been so supportive of the Mayor’s Food Drive. Last year, I thought, how can we do this to really get everybody into the spirit? So we had the Councillor’s Challenge and it was so well received we’re doing it again. It raises awareness of just how many families rely on donations like this,” Mayor Gondek said.

“You know what, it’d be lovely to win yet another trophy, but it’s important to make sure that members of council are able to recognize how much their wards have done for them. Remember, these are the people in all of their wards that are providing the donations to make this happen.”

She said that this year in particular, with some harrowing numbers coming from a recent Calgary Foundation report on inequality, that the jokes and fun of a friendly competition are underlined by a serious need in the city.

“This year we have a report from the Calgary Foundation indicating that 30 per cent of families are struggling to put food on the table, and that goes hand in hand with all of the other affordability experiences they’re having. We’ve got parents who are skipping meals so their kids can eat. We need to make sure we’re taking care of our neighbours,” she said.

“At the same time, if you happen to be a family or an individual that needs to pick up a donation, you can count on the Calgary Food Bank.”

Ward 12 Councillor Evan Spencer took the win for the day, followed by Ward 9 Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra in second, and Ward 8 Councillor Courtney Walcott in third.

For more information on how to donate to your ward for the Councillor’s Challenge, see www.calgaryfoodbank.com.

Photos from the second annual Councillor’s Challenge