The verdict is in and the Cass County Family Courts “outswept” the competition to emerge as the winning team in Midwest Energy Cooperative’s Annual Supermarket Sweep Food Drive Tuesday at Martin’s Super Market in Elkhart.

Supermarket Sweep is a spirited and competitive “food-raiser” that pits team against team for a five-minute sweep of the supermarket to gather grocery items for a beneficiary food pantry. The team collecting the most items on the provided shopping list wins. The beneficiary of the 2012 event was the Marcellus Community Food Pantry.

Second-place honors went to RKM Fireworks. Cass County Council on Aging won the People’s Choice Award for the best-decorated cart and the Marcellus Rotary Club was recognized with the “Crappy Wheel Award” as the team collecting the fewest items on the shopping list. In total, 12 teams competed in Tuesday’s event, generating $1,800 in cash and groceries for the pantry. Teams included Kemner-Iott Insurance Agency, Cass Country Family Court, Cass County Council on Aging, Corporate Graphic Solutions, G.W. Jones Exchange Bank, Edward Lowe Foundation, Marcellus Rotary Club, St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, Cass County Friend of the Court, RKM Fireworks, First United Methodist Church in Dowagiac and Red Star Auction.

“This is really a fun and innovative twist of traditional food drives,” Nicole Barfell, community development specialist with Midwest Energy, said.

“I really appreciate the spirit and creativity of all of our teams and their willingness to spend a couple of hours of their time to make a huge difference in the lives of local families.”

Midwest Energy Cooperative is a member-owned electric utility providing electric distribution and an assortment of energy-related programs and services to more than 35,000 customers in 11 counties in southern Michigan and northern Indiana and Ohio.