Seattle’s Pedaling Relief Project celebrates 2 million pounds of food bank donations all hauled by bike

Atiyeh Assaf of Byrd Barr Place helped organize a celebration for PRP riders. Photo by PRP super volunteer Joseph Roberts.

Pedaling Relief Project volunteers reached a new milestone: 2 million pounds of donated food and goods all hauled by bike to local food banks. This is nearly one tenth the weight of the Space Needle.

Byrd Barr Place in the Central District hosted a celebration Wednesday, and Cascade says they are developing a toolkit to share with organizations in other communities looking to start something similar.

From Cascade:

Founded in 2020, the Pedaling Relief Project organizes eight weekly volunteer rides to supermarkets and groceries in Seattle and Bellevue to rescue food on behalf of Byrd Barr Place, the University District Food Bank, White Center Food Bank, Hopelink Bellevue Market, and Food Not Bombs.

Using nimble bike trailers attached to their bicycles, the volunteers load up bins of produce, bread, prepared sandwiches and other food and supplies that would otherwise go to waste and then pedal it back to the food banks.

Pedaling Relief volunteers also do home deliveries, serving food bank clients who, due to transportation challenges or health reasons, are unable to visit their local food bank in person.

Using pedal power to deliver food to our community is an amazing model," says Atiyeh Assaf, manager of the Byrd Barr Place food bank. It's neighbors helping neighbors with bikes."

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They also included these amazing numbers:

• More than 100,000 miles pedaled
• 861 volunteer riders
• More than 21,000 total volunteer signups
• Approximately 3,400 rescue and delivery rides since 2020
• 40,000-plus homes served

My bike loaded up on an unusually large PCC donation day. All together we rescued about 650 lbs of food that day. Photo by Joseph Roberts.

In recent months, my schedule has shifted around so that I have been able to rejoin the Thursday crew at Byrd Barr Place after a couple years away, doing deliveries to neighbors and picking up donations from PCC. It's such a fun way to volunteer and contribute work to help a hard-working community organization support their neighbors. PRP handles logistical and time-consuming tasks that food bank staff would otherwise need to handle by van. Because multiple people with bikes can fan out in all directions at once, they can accomplish hours of van deliveries in almost no time. This frees up the van and staff to do other important work and allows the food bank to expand its home delivery capacity.

In its sixth year, PRP volunteers have also shown remarkable consistency and reliability. The idea sounds like the kind of thing that could get a lot of excitement when it first starts but then dwindles away over time. But that has not happened. People show up every week (some more often than that) to do their part. It's a friendly community of folks supporting their neighbors in a time when the cost of food keeps increasing and the government safety net keeps fraying.

Congratulations to everyone who has ever volunteered with PRP, but especially those who keep coming back week after week. Two million pounds is an incredible accomplishment.

If you or anyone you know is struggling to put food on the table, food banks are there for you. Your neighbors care about you and don't want you to skip a meal because of money. You don't have to prove your income or anything like that. Simply show up during distribution hours and get what you need. If you or someone you know someone has trouble accessing food and is spending all their money on Instacart, see if the local food bank does deliveries. Perhaps a PRP rider will even bring it.