The Pedaling Relief Project Impact
Learn more about our volunteer food rescue and delivery mutual aid program known as PRP, all done by bike.
How It Works
Cascade develops opportunities that allow our volunteers to get out on their bikes and become involved with the organizations and groups that are providing support to food-insecure members of their communities. These volunteer opportunities currently include delivering groceries for four local food banks to families and individuals all over Seattle, rescuing food from local grocery stores for food banks, as well as riding out to restock Little Free Pantries that provide neighborhood-level emergency food support. Cascade also organizes opportunities to bike fresh produce that is donated by local community gardens to food banks, bike sushi to food-insecure Asian communities in South Seattle, and deliver school supplies to elementary students in underserved communities.
Our Impact
- Since May 2020, Pedaling Relief Project volunteers have ridden out into communities 8,733 times. Collectively, we carried valuable food and school supplies more than 20,246 miles -- all on our bikes. Our average miles traveled when making deliveries or pickups was 2.5 miles.
- We biked more than 319 tons of food and personal care items out to more than 18,133 food-insecure neighbors from the White Center Food Bank, the Byrd Barr Place Food Bank, University District Food Bank, El Centro De La Raza Food Bank, Rainier Valley Food Bank, Mary's Place, P-Patch Community Gardens, and Alleycat Acres.
- We rescued more than 956,373 pounds of food from local grocery stores for the Byrd Barr Place Food Bank, the University District Food Bank, Asian Counseling and Referral Service, and Emerald City Food not Bombs -- all by bike. Much of that rescued food (especially the bread) was immediately used to make no-cook meals for people without a kitchen and our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness.
- We made these difficult times just a little easier for 356 elementary school students by delivering school supplies and books to their homes for their students from Graham Hill Elementary and Beacon Hill International Elementary. For the majority of the school families, it would have been prohibitively difficult to pick up the books and supplies from the schools due to work schedules and transportation barriers.
- By doing this all by bike rather than by car or truck, we kept more than 8.6 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.
(updated June 2023)
Thank you for your donation to enhance PRP!
Donate to the Pedaling Relief Project
While our impact at our local food banks is immense, we know that there are communities that would benefit from a PRP program in their neighborhood. Your donation helps purchase/refurbish trailers, fuel our volunteers, and expand our capacity to future PRP sites.
Thank You to Our Partners
- Byrd Barr Place
- Rainier Valley Food Bank
- White Center Food Bank
- Emerald City Food Not Bombs
- University of Washington
- Burley