Holy Turkey! Seattle Cranksgiving 2025 riders clobber records, bike 6,540 pounds of donations to food banks
Atiyeh Assaf of from Byrd Barr Place addresses riders before the start of Seattle Cranksgiving 2025.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:
