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.