Like many Canadians, Richard Loat grew up dreaming about playing hockey to put food on the table. For the past two years, he’s done just that. Despite lacking the requisite skills for a professional career on ice, Loat founded Five Hole for Food, a cross-country collaboration dedicated to raising food for those in need through the time-honoured tradition of road hockey.
“I’m blown away by what we’ve been able to do in such a short amount of time,” admits the 22-year-old Simon Fraser University student when asked about the 42,711 pounds of food raised this summer. “We thought our goal of 20,000 pounds was really aggressive after raising 6,000 last year. The generosity of people across the country has been overwhelming.”
The concept is simple: spend a day playing road hockey in various cities across Canada and ask for donations to the local food bank from those who come either to play or to watch. It’s an idea that was hatched during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games when Loat successfully organized flash-mob road-hockey games around downtown Vancouver.
“The games were so popular that I started to realize this could be a vehicle to effect change in not only my community, but in others across Canada,” explains the diehard Canucks fan, who credits his parents for his social conscience. “I was already planning on taking a trip across Canada last summer, and the wheels started to turn.”
But having never been east of Montreal, how could Loat organize games and donations in cities he’d never even visited? The answer came via his other passion—social media. An avid blogger and Twitter aficionado, Loat had been introduced online to other passionate Canadian hockey fans, many of them bloggers. He began contacting his fellow puck enthusiasts and gauging their interest in this endeavour.
The response surpassed Loat’s wildest expectations. People quickly pledged their support, and Loat began to assemble a crew in Vancouver to help him coordinate the project with his cyber-recruits. The speed, ease and economy of social media facilitated, in only a few months of planning, the nine-city tour inaugurated in Montreal last summer. One year later, the same medium resulted in this summer’s expanded tour of 13 cities in 17 days, and the inclusion of corporate support.
“I tweeted GM Canada, and 14 days later we had a Chevy Equinox parked in Saint John, waiting for us to drive across the country in,” says Loat (who goes by the handle @mozy19 on Twitter). “WestJet flew us out there to start the tour, Boston Pizza was feeding us, Telus helped keep us connected to social media, London Drugs showed up in every city from Winnipeg on west with donations to each food bank. And, of course, Molson Canadian really came through offering financial support.”
But it was the enthusiasm and generosity of hockey fans coast to coast that really stunned the founder of Five Hole for Food. From a ferry captain in Channel-Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland, who not only ensured that the team’s reservation would not be cancelled despite their late arrival, but also initiated an impromptu hockey game with the Five Hole team on the vessel’s helipad, to the 9,400 pounds of food raised at the final stop in Vancouver, Loat gathered first-hand evidence of what he’s always believed. “Hockey is the religion that brings us [Canadians] together,” he says proudly.
Loat may never score enough to play in the NHL, but through his work filling empty stomachs every time he fills the net, his goal is among the most important this country has ever scored.
