Pointless Prize: Rescuing Food by Bike

[Henry]

BikeArlington and Food Rescue DC are partnering on a pointless prize to encourage Freezing Saddlers to get some miles while doing some good. Food Rescue is a nonprofit coordinates volunteers who pick-up excess healthy food from local food donors and deliver it directly to local social service agencies that feed the food insecure. BikeArlington would love to see them expand the opportunities for people to do this by bike (and expand the number of deliveries they consider “bikeable”).

To participate, riders will have to sign up on the Food Rescue DC website to get access to the dashboard, which has the delivery details.

You will have to also log your food rescues as separate Strava trips with #foodrescue hashtag, solely covering the miles between the donor and the receiving agency. The miles you accrue to get to the rescue will still count toward Freezing Saddles, of course, but we want to avoid shenanigans with circuitous routes. Mention Freezing Saddle in your comments on the Food Rescue site when you close your rescues, as a means of verification.

This is also an opportunity for you to leave any comments to help inform their bike program long-term. Many rescues are labeled as “bikeable routes” as well as “challenge” routes for people with cargo bikes or trailers to take bulkier loads. Riders are welcome to peruse the app, of course, and ask them about the viability of any route that catches their eye. We suspect their are many rescues that COULD be be bikeable, but aren’t labeled as such.

Eva Reynolds of Food Rescue DC will be lurking in this thread to comment and answer any questions.

We will award pointless prizes for:

1. the most food rescues trips completed by bike;
2. the most bike miles completed for food rescue;
3. the longest single food rescue;
4. the biggest food rescue by bike (by weight); and,
maybe, 5. the total volume of food rescued over the competition (We are still working that out with the data and leaderboard folks).

Feel free to add any suggestions before Friday Dec. 15. We want to get the rules locked down before the competition begins.

Henry

[EvaReynolds]

I’m excited to meet all of you! Apologies for the hurdle of signing up for yet another app, but it’s the easiest way for us to verify who does which rescues, make sure your impact is counted with our metrics, and get you all the details that you need for pick-ups and drop-offs with different partners. You’ll also notice it’s a web-based app, so you won’t find it in the app store.

The rescues currently designated as Bikeable (which you’ll see in the title) are generally small enough to fit on the back or in the basket of a standard bike. If you ever get a bigger donation than you can manage, call me at 571-331-4580 or our site director Kate at 203-570-2560 and we’ll figure out how to get the rest of the food picked up.

For those of you with trailers, cargo bikes, or other means of taking bulkier + heavier donations, here are a few donors that you can look out for. Unless otherwise indicated, these are in plastic bags and therefore need to be transported in some kind of box, not strapped to a bike, so the food isn’t crushed!: We, the Pizza Ballston (8+ sturdy pizza boxes); Call Your Mother Deli Georgetown; Call Your Mother Deli P Street; Compliments Only; Firehook Old Town Alexandria; and Seylou Bakery.

Like Henry said, feel free to reach out if you see an intriguing rescue that doesn’t seem to be designated as Bikeable. I would suggest using the “Compact Sedan” filter to see rescues that are under 100 lbs.

And of course, feel free to sign up ASAP and get a few rescues under your belt so you know what you’re in for come January!

Eva

[CBGanimal]

Henry this is a great idea. I will be checking out the site…but do you mean that there is a specific route that you have to take from A to B vs doing your own? Is that for FS or for the Food Rescue DC?

Either way I like this

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[cvcalhoun]

I only wish they had something like this in Montgomery County!

[Henry]

@CBGanimal 226556 wrote:

Henry this is a great idea. I will be checking out the site…but do you mean that there is a specific route that you have to take from A to B vs doing your own? Is that for FS or for the Food Rescue DC?

Either way I like this

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There is no specific route, take the route that works best for you. But you just count the miles from the pickup to the dropoff, not the mile getting there nor the miles getting back home (or to you next delivery?!?). I suppose you could pad the trip, but why?

Henry

[CBGanimal]

Thanks Henry…that is what I figured.

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[Starduster]

Hey folks! Remember the Disaster Relief Trials we did before the pandemic? We were training for a mission *just like this*!

[EvaReynolds]

@cvcalhoun 226558 wrote:

I only wish they had something like this in Montgomery County!

Yeah, we have some activity in Bethesda and Rockville but our DC site doesn’t extend as far as MoCo. Manna Food Center does some good food recovery work out there but I don’t know the specifics of how they operate.

[CBGanimal]

I’m practicing!! I’m doing my first rescue on Wednesday and so excited. My rescue has a time range so I figure if I can’t get it all at once I could make two trips. The title did have (Bikable) so I should be good.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Eva and Henry!

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[cvcalhoun]

Alas, what it says on their site about volunteering as a food runner, in relevant part:

[FONT=&amp]Requirements[/FONT][FONT=&amp]:[/FONT]

• A clean vehicle
• Insurance on that vehicle
• A driver’s license and good driving record

Even if “vehicle” might be interpreted to include a bicycle, the insurance and driver’s license requirements suggest that it does not. And I wrote to them and asked whether they would be willing to have someone deliver food by bicycle, mentioning that I don’t actually own a car. This is what I got back:

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we do not have a program like what you are describing.

We would be thrilled for you to come volunteer with the Community Food Rescue program.
This is a Montgomery County funded program that Manna Administers.

Here is some information on the program-
https://www.communityfoodrescue.org/

I wouldn’t think you’d need a separate “program” just to have someone deliver food by bike instead of car. And I’m a bit mystified by their suggesting I volunteer for a program that requires a car when I just said I don’t own a car. But it’s clear they are not willing to consider bicycle deliveries.
@EvaReynolds 226567 wrote:

Manna Food Center does some good food recovery work out there but I don’t know the specifics of how they operate.

[EvaReynolds]

I’m sorry to hear that! Recovering food by bicycle is such a logical step if your goal is preventing carbon emissions. That’s a shame

[CBGanimal]

@Carol, That really is pathetic!!

Eva, I just finished my first rescue funny that my ride there and back was 10 times longer than the delivery![emoji1787][emoji1787]. But all good. One question: being that the delivery rides are pretty short and if I couldn’t get everything on my bike 1st run, would it be possible to do two runs if it fit into the time allowed? Thanks for coordinating!

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[EvaReynolds]

Sounds like a great route to rack up miles for Freezing Saddles!

Henry and I discussed this and decided that yes, doing two runs is allowed, when needed, but should be a last resort. We don’t want to encourage people to make two trips just for the sake of maximizing miles, when it could be an inconvenience to the staff who have to be present to receive food twice. But of course, if you could only manage it in two trips, then that’d be better than sending a car to pick up the rest!

[Henry]

@EvaReynolds 226640 wrote:

Sounds like a great route to rack up miles for Freezing Saddles!

Henry and I discussed this and decided that yes, doing two runs is allowed, when needed, but should be a last resort. We don’t want to encourage people to make two trips just for the sake of maximizing miles, when it could be an inconvenience to the staff who have to be present to receive food twice. But of course, if you could only manage it in two trips, then that’d be better than sending a car to pick up the rest!

Agreed, for the sake of the pointless prize, we’ll allow multiple runs of the same delivery, but only the parts when carrying food.

Henry

[Kbikeva]

I love this prize but I don’t live in Arlington so I will just applaud and admire those of you who do this.

That said, I’m the president of the Friends of the W&OD, and if any of the participants in the prize hunt use the W&OD to transport the food, and is willing to shoot me a photo of you doing it, I will be happy to post it to the W&OD’s social media and raise awareness for the Food Rescue DC program as well as the participants.

And I might be able to find some cool W&OD SWAG as an additional prize. 2024 is the W&OD’s 50th Anniversary and we want to show off all the different ways people use it! Who knew, “delivering food for others” would be one of those ways?

[Author]

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