Kansas City Bicyclists Hit the Streets to stock Food Bank Shelves in the Sixth Annual Cranksgiving Alleycat Race.

Who:Bicyclists from around Kansas City

Where: Anita Gorman Discovery Center,4750 Troost Ave, Kansas City, MO

When: November 17, 2012 12:30 pm

What:Bicycle Alleycat Race to support St. Peter’s Food Pantry

Cranksgiving Alleycat Race

November 17, 2012 12:30 pm

On Kansas City, Missouri  November 17, 2012 - For the seventh year in a row, bicyclists in Kansas City will ride an Alleycat race through the city, starting at the Anita Gorman Discovery Center at 48th and Troost stopping at grocery stores to pick up one or two items and rolling on to another, visiting up to 10 stores before finishing at St. Peter's Legacy Center at 6415 Holmes Road. Groceries will be donated to St. Peter’s Food Bank.

Cranksgiving, first organized in New York City in 1999 ,by Antonio Rodrigues and continues to be run there. After Rodrigues moved to York, PA, the event spread to there as well as to Des Moines,IA, St. Louis and other cities throughout the country.

The first Cranksgiving in Kansas City was started by local photographer and cyclist Michael Forrester, with Grant Redwine and Jason Wingate. The race brought together riders from the various communities within Kansas City area cycling. The following year, the Greater Kansas City Bicycle Federation and 816 Bicycle Collective began organizing Cranksgiving.

In 2009, riders filled the stage at the Brick with food donations. “In the first event,” says director Jeff Perry, “we gathered foods for a Thanksgiving dinner. It seems that hunger has become a larger problem, so now I ask the riders to gather staples like peanut butter, soup and cereal. Another item that the food banks have asked for in the past is soap and other personal care products, because people can’t use their food stamps for those.”

In 2010, riders collected nearly a ton of food, as they finished at St. Peter’s.The Knights of Columbus supported the ride by counting and weighing each rider’s load.

Alleycat races started as a competition between bicycle messengers and involve a number of check points, much like a typical work day in a messengers life. At Cranksgiving, riders are given a manifest that has a list of grocery stores and items to purchase. Riders will start riding at 1PM and finish at St. Peter’s at 3PM. Methods of carrying groceries vary from messenger bags and backpacks to baskets, panniers and even cargo trailers.

Riders pay no entry fee and register the day of the event, receiving a spoke card and manifest.

For additional information

Contact Jeff Perry, cell 816-807-7276 or jeff.perry@gmail.com

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Another Question

One more question for you Jeff.

 

What's the distance of this ride? I heard from someone who did it last year that it's 50 miles. Is there any way to make it a 20 mile route?

 

The answer is that there is no set distance.  The farthest store is about 10 miles from the start, according to Google Maps. There will be stops along the way so the distance is up to you and you won't have to hit all the stores unless you expect to win the trophy. I would guess that maybe 25 miles would be all you would have to ride, at most.

Jeff

Questions

I received an email today about Cranksgiving and I thought it would be useful to some other people.

Hey Jeff,

I just heard about this race at the Bikes and Dinner event sponsored by BikeWalkKC on Sept. 22^nd. It sounds like a blast. 

Is all registration on race day? 

We expect to have advance registration soon through our partners at Catholic Charities.This will help those preparing the food for the party to have enough.

Does the manifest give directions to each of the grocery stores? What is traffic like on these routes? The Manifest will have the addresses of the stores only, much like a bike messenger would get. It's likely that you could follow other riders and the traffic will vary, depending on the route you take.  I don't find that traffic is generally very bad. 

Do you still hold the ride if it is snowing/icy?

The event will go on regardless of the weather but it is a fun event, not really a serious competition, so much. Use your own best judgement. If it's bad, you can just visit the stores between the start and St. Peter's or just bring some groceries and we'll eat chili and hang out.

Do we purchase our own groceries at each store, or do they have donations that they are giving out? You will have to purchase the groceries at each store, they are not donated. That is one of the reasons that we don't charge an entry fee.

Have you found that backpacks get too heavy? Do you recommend a basket or panniers?My personal preference for carrying items is a basket, panniers or a messenger bag. Backpacks tend to ride too high for my taste. 

Hooray!!! A Sponsor!!!

Exciting Crispy Tasty News! 


Through a good friend now working for Chipotle Grill, I was able to get gift cards for entrants. So the first 150 registrants (and we do this all race day) will receive gift cards for Chipotle. We're always open for more sponsors and more love at Cranksgiving time.

Kansas City Bicyclists Hit the Streets to stock Food Bank Shelves in the Sixth Annual Cranksgiving Alleycat Race.

Who:Bicyclists from around Kansas City

Where: Anita Gorman Discovery Center,4750 Troost Ave, Kansas City, MO

When: November 19, 2011 12:30 pm

What:Bicycle Alleycat Race to support St. Peter’s Food Pantry

Cranksgiving Alleycat Race

November 19, 2011 12:30 pm

On Kansas City, Missouri  November 19, 2011 - For the sixth year in a row, bicyclists in Kansas City will ride an Alleycat race through the city, starting at the Anita Gorman Discovery Center at 48th and Troost stopping at grocery stores to pick up one or two items and rolling on to another, visiting up to 10 stores before finishing at St. Peter's Legacy Center at 6415 Holmes Road. Groceries will be donated to St. Peter’s Food Bank.

Cranksgiving, first organized in New York City in 1999 ,by Antonio Rodrigues and continues to be run there. After Rodrigues moved to York, PA, the event spread to there as well as to Des Moines,IA, St. Louis and other cities throughout the country.

The first Cranksgiving in Kansas City was started by local photographer and cyclist Michael Forrester, with Grant Redwine and Jason Wingate. The race brought together riders from the various communities within Kansas City area cycling. The following year, the Greater Kansas City Bicycle Federation and 816 Bicycle Collective began organizing Cranksgiving.

In 2009, riders filled the stage at the Brick with food donations. “In the first event,” says director Jeff Perry, “we gathered foods for a Thanksgiving dinner. It seems that hunger has become a larger problem, so now I ask the riders to gather staples like peanut butter, soup and cereal. Another item that the food banks have asked for in the past is soap and other personal care products, because people can’t use their food stamps for those.”

In 2010, riders collected nearly a ton of food, as they finished at St. Peter’s.The Knights of Columbus supported the ride by counting and weighing each rider’s load.

Alleycat races started as a competition between bicycle messengers and involve a number of check points, much like a typical work day in a messengers life. At Cranksgiving, riders are given a manifest that has a list of grocery stores and items to purchase. Riders will start riding at 1PM and finish at St. Peter’s at 3PM. Methods of carrying groceries vary from messenger bags and backpacks to baskets, panniers and even cargo trailers.

Riders pay no entry fee and register the day of the event, receiving a spoke card and manifest.

For additional information

Contact Jeff Perry, cell 816-807-7276 or jeff.perry@gmail.com

###