As many of you already know, today marks the start of Five Hole For Food, a cross-country trip with road hockey games, tweetups, and other festivities planned in nine cities from Montreal to Vancouver with the goal of raising money and collecting food donations for local food banks across Canada. The idea was spawned by Canucks fan and author of the popular Canucks Hockey Blog, Richard Loat, as an addition to original plans for a Canada-wide road hockey trip. Spurred on by various forms of social media, Five Hole For Food has gathered a large following of Canadian hockey fans and bloggers and has drawn the attention of members of the media and NHL, AHL, ECHL, and CHL hockey teams in each of its destinations. The Abbotsford Heat will be joining in on the festivities during Five Hole For Food's last stop in Vancouver on July 9th, and in Calgary, Five Hole For Food has joined forces with the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank's "Put The Boots To Hunger" campaign. The Flames have donated a team-signed jersey along with signed 8X10 photographs of Niklas Hagman, Ales Kotalik, Jamal Mayers, and David Moss which will be up for grabs to those who donate the largest poundage of food, and there will be a few players from the Flames and Hitmen present when the event takes place on July 5th, 4PM at Eau Claire Market. 

To add a little competition and incentive to the mix, the game is being touted as a match-up of Canucks fans versus Flames fans, and participants from both sides of the rivalry are expected to show up proudly donning their team's colours. I hope to see some of you there, and for those of you who don't reside in Calgary, here's the schedule and information for Five Hole For Food's other stops, coming to a city near you:

Montreal: June 29th

Ottawa: June 30th 

Toronto: July 1st 

Winnipeg: July 3rd 

Regina: July 4th 

Calgary: July 5th 

Edmonton: July 6th

Victoria: July 8th  

Vancouver: July 9th 

For more information and updates, follow Richard and Five Hole For Food on Twitter and Facebook.