Aggies Blue Bikes gives back to community with Cranksgiving

Aggie Blue Bikes hosted their annual Cranksgiving event — a food drive race — on Nov. 22. Their event is one of many Cranksgiving events around the world designed to help raise donations of food around the holidays.   

Avery Cronyn, who is the ABB program coordinator, said this race is commonly referred to as an alley cat race.   

“An alley cat race is basically an informal bike race – oftentimes it’s a scavenger hunt – where you’re given a series of locations that you have to go to,” Cronyn said. “Your placement depends not only on how fast you are but also on how you put together your route.”  

A bike carrying food for the Cranksgiving event, as seen on Nov. 22.

Raymond Ward, who is the Aggie Blue Bikes shop manager, said this event is a great opportunity to do some good for Cache Valley.  

“It’s a good way for us to build community and also help give back to our community because we get a lot from our community,” Ward said. “So, it’s awesome that we’re able to give back and create fun experiences.”  

Cronyn said he felt it was especially important to host Cranksgiving this year because of rising food insecurity.  

“I think right now, it’s really important just given the difficulties with SNAP benefits and food programs,” Cronyn said. “The food pantry said they almost doubled the amount of people using the food pantry in the last month, which is crazy. We really want to be able to support all members of our community. I think the food pantry is an amazing organization, so if we can encourage and help people contribute and support the mission of the food pantry, then that’s great.”  

Cronyn said this year there were eight stops on the manifesto for the race. Five of them were grocery stores, and the other three featured fun challenges like trivia, obstacle courses and basketball free throw shots. Cronyn said for the grocery stores, competitors were given a list of food items to pick from.  

“These are the items that Cache Food Pantry asked us for this year,” Cronyn said. “So, I put together a list of groceries and assigned different point values to the grocery items depending on how expensive they are, how hard they are to carry on a bike, how heavy they are and how much the food pantry needs them.” 

Cronyn said this event is a great way to get people out on their bikes for a good cause.   

“The whole idea with Cranksgiving is you can feel like you’re contributing to the community,” Cronyn said. “We donated almost 550 pounds of food. That’s a huge donation in one day, and we were able to do that completely on bikes.”  

Cronyn said this event can also help people develop a connection with their peers.  

“I think everybody wants to be part of a community, and bicycles are a great way to get involved with your community,” Cronyn said. “If you’re in a group of cyclists, you can hang out with your friends and ride bikes. It’s a great team building activity, and in a way, a great community building activity.”  

Ward said his favorite part of the event is weighing the food. 

“I think one of my favorite parts from both running it and also participating is at the end when we weigh all of the food,” Ward said. “It always surprises me how much people are able to do, even just on bikes.”  

Cronyn said he will continue to host the Cranksgiving food drive race for as long as he is the ABB program coordinator.