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

Topic

[cvcalhoun]

Where do you find Bethesda and Rockville? When I look at the Food Rescue locations, it shows only Anne Arundel, Howard, and PG in Maryland. I thought perhaps Bethesda and Rockville would be under DC. It would be rather easier to determine this if the filter were working, but it’s not–when I search for rescues within 5 miles of my house in Bethesda, it is showing me places in Crystal City and downtown DC, which are obviously not within 5 miles. However, when I clicked on several of them, it wasn’t showing any of them in Maryland. And when I try searching by donor and choose Trader Joe’s in Bethesda, Mom’s Organic Market, or Giant (which are the ones I could identify as being here), it shows no rescues available.

I’d be happy to help out if there are opportunities in my area, but I’m not finding them. @EvaReynolds 226695 wrote:

I love this! And just to clarify, this rescue opportunity isn’t exclusive to Arlington. Food Rescue US – DC operates in Wards 1-8, Arlington, Fairfax, McLean, Reston, Alexandria, Bethesda, and Rockville.

[CBGanimal]

@Henry 226643 wrote:

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

Thanks Henry and Eva, I wasn’t even thinking for the pointless prize just worry that one day I’ll find out that I can’t carry everything I think I can carry.

Eva or Henry, I’d like to try more than just the bikable ones since there are so few of them…do you think I can try the small sedan rescues?
Henry have you tried doing any of those?

Thanks Chris

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[EvaReynolds]

@cvcalhoun Bethesda and Rockville are part of DC, but the distance filter is confusing because it refers to the distance between pick-up and drop-off — not from your house. We’ve asked our tech team to create filters by zipcode and/or state to make it easier for our VA and MD rescuers to stay close to home. Most Food Rescue US sites don’t have to worry about a tri-state area, but we in DC are special :p

Levain Bakery Bethesda and Vegetable + Butcher (if you can handle bulk, 175lbs) would be two to look out for — they’re “adopted” which means the same volunteer covers them every week, but sometimes they will “release” the rescue if they’re going to be out of town. We’re happy to expand in Bethesda, so feel free to email me (eva@foodrescue.us) if there are any local businesses you’d like me to approach about donating! (Corporate chains are OK but many have exclusive contracts with Feeding America)

[EvaReynolds]

@Chris feel free to email me (eva@foodrescue.us) if there are certain rescues you’re eyeing, and I can tell you how they package their donations and roughly what weight you can expect. For instance, many small sedan rescues involve sheet pans of prepared food, so you would need a cart or something to stabilize them + accommodate the weight.

[cvcalhoun]

Okay, I sent you an e-mail. @EvaReynolds 226713 wrote:

@cvcalhoun Bethesda and Rockville are part of DC, but the distance filter is confusing because it refers to the distance between pick-up and drop-off — not from your house. We’ve asked our tech team to create filters by zipcode and/or state to make it easier for our VA and MD rescuers to stay close to home. Most Food Rescue US sites don’t have to worry about a tri-state area, but we in DC are special :p

Levain Bakery Bethesda and Vegetable + Butcher (if you can handle bulk, 175lbs) would be two to look out for — they’re “adopted” which means the same volunteer covers them every week, but sometimes they will “release” the rescue if they’re going to be out of town. We’re happy to expand in Bethesda, so feel free to email me (eva@foodrescue.us) if there are any local businesses you’d like me to approach about donating! (Corporate chains are OK but many have exclusive contracts with Feeding America)

[CBGanimal]

I have 4 rescues under my belt now and I’m very impressed with the app and the ease of doing the bikeable rescues! Big Bear even offered me a cup of coffee to go today (at barely 40 degrees)!!! Eva thanks for your guidance!

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[Nadine]

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[Nadine]

@CBGanimal 226780 wrote:

I have 4 rescues under my belt now and I’m very impressed with the app and the ease of doing the bikeable rescues! Big Bear even offered me a cup of coffee to go today (at barely 40 degrees)!!! Eva thanks for your guidance!

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Wow this looks really impressive. I hope I can figure out how to do it. (I guess if I get overwhelmed I know why to ask for guidance, [emoji38]
What a great idea, Henry.

[sktrMarti]

Hello everyone! Filtering on Unclaimed, Compact Sedan and then “bike” in the Food Rescue app helped me. I’m going to try next Friday I picked a bakery w/a short distance to the drop off in case I need multiple trips. Doing the Strava tagging will be my next challenge.

[cvcalhoun]

It looks like there is only one bikeable rescue in my area, and it is permanently adopted by someone else. However, apparently that person is unavailable on Saturday, so I claimed it. Wish me luck with a 17-mile (one-way) rescue that won’t even count for Freezing Saddles!

[sktrMarti]

Hi Chris! Your Strava feed shows a rescue “load” w/I think a set of panniers and rear rack. My bike will take either a w/softsided rack bag or a milk crate. Plus I could bring an empty back pack. My rescue donor is Tatte City Center (bakery type place). Hopefully I can load it all in one trip.

[CBGanimal]

@sktrMarti 226863 wrote:

Hi Chris! Your Strava feed shows a rescue “load” w/I think a set of panniers and rear rack. My bike will take either a w/softsided rack bag or a milk crate. Plus I could bring an empty back pack. My rescue donor is Tatte City Center (bakery type place). Hopefully I can load it all in one trip.

Hi back Marti, Ihope your set up worked) I use my panniers in two ways..one to fill up with baked goods…but when i pick up pizzas then I use the panniers as a good base.
Im outta town till the new year but will be back on this as soon as I get back!

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[cvcalhoun]

I did my first rescue today. It got shortened from a 17-mile ride to a 3-mile ride when it turned out the organization originally intended as the recipient was going to be closed. But they still looked startled at both pick-up and drop-off when they saw my vehicle.

Not sure this one should be marked as “bikeable,” if you were using just a bike. But with a combination of a trailer and a cooler that fit into my rear basket, I made it.

[kwarkentien]

I’ve done several rescues pre-BAFS and think this is a great program. Might I suggest a small change for the Challenge? Instead of mileage, how about we tag the ride where we did a rescue with #foodrescue and then just tally the total number of rescues completed? If you did more than one rescue (not several trips for the same rescue), then mark it with an “x2” (or whatever number of rescues conducted) at the end of the hashtag. This will be easier than having to do multiple “rides” to separate out food rescue miles. [mention]Henry [/mention] , what do you think about this modification?

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[sktrMarti]

Hello everyone! My 3 rescue attempts have all been cancelled around 8:30pm the night before. Good news is the Food Rescue staff have been very supportive. I really want this to work and not be a negative sign.

[Author]

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