After nearly two months of running uncontested for Vashon’s unofficial mayor seat, Colleen Carrette finally has an opponent in the form of the Backpack Pantry’s Nancy Radford.

Radford is running to benefit the Backpack Pantry, a program she founded last summer, which aims to provide weekend meals to schoolchildren who receive free or reduced lunches at school through the week. Currently, 20 children are being given weekend meals through the program, but Radford hopes to triple that number as 22 percent of the district’s 1,500 children qualify for free or reduced lunch.

“We want people to know who we are and what we’re doing,” she said. “It’s a big project we’re starting.”

She said providing lunch for one child every weekend of the school year costs $300.

“It’s a lot,” she said.

While the Backpack Pantry has met its funding needs for this school year, it will need financial support for next school year and will need to have funds in place before the 2017-18 school year begins.

Radford said she saw Vashon’s annual unofficial mayor race as a way to bring awareness to the program and help it meet funding goals. She has never run for the position before, but said her “heart and soul is into this program.”

As is tradition, mayoral votes are cast via monetary donations and “ballot boxes” for Radford are now in place at local businesses. Islanders can make donations by dropping money in the “ballot boxes.”

Donations will be accepted up until the announcement of the new mayor during Strawberry Festival in July. The candidate who raises the most money by the summer festival will win the title.

Vashon Maury Island Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jim Marsh stresses every year that the election is all about the nonprofits and having fun for a worthy cause.