#Cranksgiving Scavenger Hunt Sun Dec 7th to Benefit #Portland Street Medicine
10:30 meet at Nomad Cycles 5820 NE Sandy
Ride at 11am - 2:00pm DIY loop, map provided, registration $10 donation per rider, team and solo categories, #eBikes use will be graded on a curve [prizes are likely silly but coveted 😆 ]

#pdxBikes #BikeTooter #cargoBikes #BikeFun

https://shift2bikes.org/calendar/event-22926

Holy Turkey! Seattle Cranksgiving 2025 riders clobber records, bike 6,540 pounds of donations to food banks

With food insecurity issues getting national attention, I had a feeling Seattle’s 16th Annual Cranksgiving could attract more people than usual. But I can still hardly believe the final totals from Saturday’s ride.

410 people participated (385 riders and 25 volunteers), absolutely clobbering the previous record set last year, which was itself a huge increase over previous years. The final haul? 6,540 pounds. That’s 3.25 tons all purchased from local food sellers and hauled by bike to four area food banks: Byrd Barr Place, Rainier Valley Food Bank, U District Food Bank and White Center Food Bank.

Big thanks to Bike Works for hosting the Rainier Valley Food Bank drop off point and Conscious Eatery for hosting the White Center Food Bank drop off. Thanks also to Central Cinema for hosting the afterparty.

Most of all, thanks to everyone who participated. Even as food costs rise, Cranksgiving riders responded in kind by increasing the total weight of donations by 55% over 2024. Even though registering to ride is free and I did not increase the number of items on the list compared to previous years, prices have increased a lot thus making participation more expensive (based on rider feedback, I am working on some adjustments for future years to lower the baseline cost for participation). We don’t have a way of tracking total rider expenses, but 6,540 pounds of donations at 2025 grocery store prices is a lot of money. Thank you all for investing in your communities.

Though the week before Thanksgiving is the busiest week of the year for food banks, their services are needed year-round. So if you have the means, please consider making cash donations to one or more food banks. They have many costs that can’t be funded by cans of soup. Food banks also have special access to discount food purchases to keep their shelves stocked and fill in gaps in food donations.

For the fourth year, Seattle Bike Blog partnered with Cascade Bicycle Club’s Pedaling Relief Project to organize and host Seattle Cranksgiving. Once again, Cascade’s Landon Welsh was a great partner, doing a lot of the behind the scenes organizing, event logistics and volunteer coordination. PRP is another great no cost way to get involved in helping reduce food insecurity in your community by using your bike to rescue food or make food bank deliveries. It’s also fun, and you are guaranteed to meet some great people.

Seattle did not crank alone. There were also locally-organized Cranksgivings in Everett, Sequim, Port Angeles and Tacoma. Cranksgiving started in New York City in 1999, and organizers open sourced the event so local communities could host their own versions. Seattle Bike Blog organized the first Seattle Cranksgiving in 2010 and has been doing it every year since.

Check the #CranksgivingSEA hashtag on your social media network of choice to see some snapshots from riders. Below are some photos by our volunteer photographer Andrew Koved:

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle Cranksgiving 2025 is November 22 + More ways to support community food security with your wallet and your bike

The 16th Annual Seattle Cranksgiving is November 22, but it could be unlike any that came before it. Join us for a day of fun, bikes and community support! Anyone with a bike and a way to carry some food can join for a bike ride scavenger hunt to buy food to donate to four local food banks: Rainier Valley Food Bank, Byrd Barr Place, U District Food Bank and, for the first time, White Center Food Bank.

Cranksgiving is an alleycat ride challenging you and a team of up to four people to bike to as many grocery sellers on our secret list within the time limit, buying items our partner food banks have requested along the way. You score points for each location visited, each item type donated as well as some silly additional challenges. After dropping off donations, riders are invited to join us for an afterparty at Central Cinema. It’s a lot of fun, but it also brings in a huge amount of food. Riders last year broke our all-time record by hauling more than two tons of donations (4,210 pounds) all by bike.

We are once again partnering with Cascade Bicycle Club’s Pedaling Relief Project to host Seattle Cranksgiving 2025. The event is free to register, but expect to spend at least $40 on groceries (or more if you are able). Pre-registration is not required, but RSVP if you can so we have a rough idea of how many people might show up. Invite your friends!

We will be getting everyone registered and set-up between 9 and 9:45 a.m. at Byrd Barr Place. The ride will start promptly at 10, and all riders must be finished by 2 p.m. Teams will get one list that sends them either north or south, then a second list that brings them back to the start. There is no set route, and navigating the city on your own is part of the challenge. This is a great opportunity to show off your bike route knowledge.

The longer routes are 12–15 miles and the shorter route is about 3–5 miles. Bring a bike lock, a pen, a way to carry food (if nothing else a backpack works), and anything you need to handle whatever the weather has in store for us. We ride rain or shine. They laughed at you when you bought that waterproof turkey costume, but you were just getting prepared for this moment. We also have volunteer positions if that’s more your speed.

You don’t have to wait until November 22 to use your bike as a tool for community food support. Check out the Pedaling Relief Project to see if there is a food rescue or delivery time and location that works for you. It’s a lot of fun, and you are guaranteed to meet inspiring people. PRP volunteers take a bunch of transportation tasks off the shoulders of food bank staff and volunteers while also helping to increase food bank distribution capacity.

Cranksgiving in a time of cuts to SNAP

As of writing this post, Republicans in DC appear prepared to allow federal SNAP benefits (AKA food stamps) to stop November 1. 930,000 people in Washington State (about one in ten state residents) currently rely on SNAP to afford food, which is only getting more expensive due to Republican tariffs and Republican abduction raids targeting immigrants working all stages of our food production pipeline. The Seattle Times reports that existing EBT balances will still be usable, but additional funds will not be added after November 1. People can continue to apply for SNAP, but those applications won’t be processed until positions are staffed again.

We do not know what the situation will be like November 22, and I hope SNAP benefits are back before then. But either way, we know our food banks will be pushed hard. Lines at food banks are already getting longer as the cost of living increases, but cutting SNAP will cause a surge in extreme hardship. Food banks cannot cover the loss of SNAP, but they will do everything they can to help feed their communities. So if you have the means, please consider making a cash donation to your local food banks.

You can also check your food bank for more volunteer opportunities. For example, Rainier Valley Food Bank has just opened their Community Food Hub building this month after a lengthy renovation (many Cranksgiving riders helped donate to this project years back!), and they are seeking new volunteers to help operate the space and keep it open more days and hours.

If you are feeling financial strain as each trip to the grocery store feels more difficult to squeeze into your budget, your food bank is there for you. There’s no onerous qualifying process, you just show up when they are open and get food.

Community joy is an act of defiance in the face of cruelty and fascism. These monsters cutting SNAP want the people to be miserable, but we can stand up for each other, support each other and enjoy each other whether they like it or not.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

"PB220004"

#bicycle #biking #cranksgiving #cycling #cyclist #mywork #photog #photography

#Cranksgiving könnte man auch hier in #Berlin machen...

https://theradavist.com/denver-cranksgiving-2024/

Seattle riders donated 2+ TONS of goods by bike during record-smashing 15th Annual Cranksgiving

I am still in shock. I knew we had a good crowd Saturday morning as we sent Cranksgiving riders out into the city to buy food and necessities for local food banks, but I had no idea we were on the verge of turning all previous participation and donation records to dust. Riders crossed the 2-ton mark for the first time ever and kept on going.

242 people participated in the 15th Annual Seattle Cranksgiving food drive bike ride (224 riders and 18 volunteers), donating a total of 4,210 pounds of goods to Byrd Barr Place (1,373 lbs), U District (1,452 lbs) and Rainier Valley (1,386 lbs) Food Banks. All the donations were purchased at an array of food vendors and stores across the city and hauled by bike. Thank you to Cascade Bicycle Club’s Pedaling Relief Project, our co-host and organizing partner for the third year in a row. Thank you also to Bike Works for once again hosting and staffing the drop-off point for Rainier Valley Food Bank. And thank you to Central Cinema for being a fantastic afterparty host.

As inflation rises and grocery prices increase, the pressure on food banks increases as well. So it is even more remarkable that as food prices have increased, Cranksgiving riders have only increased their support. Last year’s haul of 3,699 pounds of donations was record-breaking, and I my goal this year was just to try to match it. Instead, they added another 14% on top.

Held in the middle of November, Cranksgiving is supposed to be a celebration of rainy weather biking, but it is mysteriously plagued by good weather. In the same week as our region was hit hard by a rainy wind storm, the rough weather paused for a few hours so Cranksgiving riders could have a beautiful day to ride. The donations were especially helpful because our amazing food security organizations have also been working hard to help folks affected by power outages that unfortunately spoiled a lot of food in home fridges.

At a time when hate for others has taken hold of the national government, Cranksgiving riders used their legs and their hard-earned money to demonstrate how we can be resilient and take care of each other by working together. Thank you to everyone who volunteered or biked this year, and thank you to all the amazing staffers and volunteers at all our region’s food security organizations.

Landon Welsh at Cascade deserves a big special shout out. He was hired as Volunteer and Pedaling Relief Project Manager barely a month before Cranksgiving, and his first big task was to fill the shoes of Seattle PRP founder Maxwell Burton who helped me create this expanded version of Cranksgiving back in 2022. Welsh had no prior experience with Cranksgiving, and I am a scattered and unorganized person more accustomed to improvising than carefully planning. But he worked hard to get up to speed quickly and make sure everything was in place and staffed with volunteers who knew what to do. The fact that we had 75 more riders than I was expecting and it still went smoothly is a testament to his work.

Thanks to prize sponsors: Both Ways Café, Best Side Cycling and Vincita, Wombi, Seattle Bike Blog, the Center for Bicycle Repair, REI, Tom Bihn, and Cascade Bicycle Club.

There are also a bunch of happy photos on various social media sites using #CranksgivingSEA.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

#pdxBikes #CranksGiving #BikeFun #AlleyCat #ScavengerHunt registration at 11, starts at noon. from Nossa Familia 1633 SE 3rd (not a loop)

Family or 21+ categories. Cash or check (non-deductible) sliding scale $100 donation to be double matched by an anonymous donor to benefit #Portland Street Medicine

https://www.shift2bikes.org/calendar/event-20263

I had a blast riding in Seattle’s Cranksgiving 2024 which benefited food banks around the city. Together, everyone delivered over 2 tons (a new record) of needed food and supplies!

Thank you to everyone who participated, organized, and volunteered for this event!
SEAbikes #Cranksgiving