BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Fourteen local businesses squared off in Boca Helping Hands’ Third Annual Corporate Challenge, hosting workplace food drives to help restock pantry shelves ahead of the slow summer season. When the food was weighed and the dust settled, the companies had collected a combined 22,195 pounds of non-perishable food — enough for an estimated 18,495 meals, valued at roughly $51,270.
Companies competed in one of three weight classes based on employee headcount, with the top donor in each category walking away with a boxing-style champion’s belt. SouthState Bank took the Bantamweight title (50 employees or fewer) with 966 pounds of food. Woolbright Development claimed the Middleweight crown (51-100 employees) with 1,073 pounds. And ADMA Biologics ran away with the Heavyweight belt (more than 101 employees), donating a staggering 16,418 pounds on its own.
Boca Helping Hands CEO Andrew Hagen said the timing of the competition matters as much as the friendly rivalry behind it. Summer is typically a rough stretch for food banks, he said, because demand from families in need stays steady while donations drop off as snowbirds head north and other supporters travel. The Corporate Challenge, according to Hagen, was designed to close that gap by turning philanthropy into a little bit of office bragging rights.
Boca Helping Hands has grown from a small soup kitchen founded in 1998 into one of South Florida’s largest nonprofit service providers, serving more than 40,000 people a year. The organization distributed over 3.5 million meals in 2025 through pantry bags and hot meal programs at five sites across Palm Beach County, and it also runs the KidsPack Weekend Meals Program for food-insecure elementary students at 15 area schools, along with workforce development and job placement programs for adults. Boca Helping Hands is a partner agency of the Town of Palm Beach United Way and has been rated a Charity Navigator Four-Star Charity for 21 consecutive years.
Companies interested in competing next year — or starting a food drive now — can contact Kori Ernst at Kori@BocaHelpingHands.org or (561) 417-0913 ext. 205.
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Really wonderful that these companies get together and do this but where is Publix ? Publix a company that does millions of dollars in business should be supporting all local food kitchens and pantries, not the selected few that they do in the most limited way. Publix should be ashamed of themselves in this respect.