It's back!
The trailer is out, Wally the Turkey (the decoy I bought at a hunting store last year) has been dusted off, and San Jose's bike-based food drive is back for the third year. Hopefully you saw the trailer at Viva Calle San Jose last week - and even if you didn't I hope you got to attend Viva Calle SJ. They closed the street I usually use to bike home from work and it was a real treat to see human beings instead of cars out there on it.
But back to Cranksgiving: We've got a time and place for the start (Registration begins at 12:00 noon and the ride starts at 1:00pm at St. James Park in downtown San Jose) and we've got a place to finish. That will be announced soon as well as sponsors to donate prizes.
For those of you that don't know, Cranksgiving is a bike-based food drive that started in New York City twenty years ago. San Jose started doing them in 2016 (check out NBC Bay Area's coverage of it here) and the tradition continues this year: cyclists meet up, get handed grocery lists and a list of stores they can go to, buy food, and meet back up for the weigh-in of all the donated food - last year we had 61 riders and over 900 pounds of food collected for Second Harvest Food Bank. Prizes are awarded on both the 'speed' and 'heavy hauler' categories.
But most importantly, a lot of cyclists get to ride together and help other people. And there are a lot of folks in San Jose - with the rest of the Bay Area - that need a lot of help.
If you can ride a bike and can feed yourself, you an ride a bike and help feed others. Let's get together on November 17th in San Jose for sure - and if you are a local retailer or shop that wants to help us out with prizes let me know (or, if you are an all-around awesome place that is already on my radar, I will reach out to you.)
Be in touch and follow Cranksgiving San Jose on Facebook - lots of details and fun facts (like the new ending point this year) are forthcoming. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding!