City Park
Baton Rouge, LA
Cranksgiving is part bike ride, part food drive, part scavenger hunt. Show up at any time between 1 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. to register. Bike Baton Rouge will hand out a map with five grocery stores and a shopping list with five common grocery items. Participants pedal to each store, pick up a grocery item, and then return with their haul to City Park to drop them off. There is no official route - you get to decide which stores to pedal to in which order, meaning that smart route planning can beat raw speed (if your time is important to you, that is).
Cranksgiving isn't really a race (unless you want it to be). While there will bee prizes awarded to the fastest finishers, there will also be fun prizes for those who spend the most, those who spend the least, and various other non-speed related categories. There'll even be a shorter family-friendly option if you'd like to participate with some junior bicyclists.
Because participants get to choose their own route, there isn't a listed distance for the ride, but most riders will complete their shopping list in about ten miles (unless you take some ... 'scenic' routes). The fastest riders will return in about forty-five minutes, and the most leisurely will be done in about an hour and a half. The family friendly route will be five miles (or less).
Last year Baton Rouge held its first ever Cranksgiving with about twenty participants donating a total of one hundred and twenty five pounds of food to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank! This year the donations gathered will be even more important, as the Food Bank lost 575,000 pounds worth of food during the August floods.
To participate in Cranksgiving you'll need :
- a bicycle
- a way to carry your groceries
- about $20
- a lock and a helmet are recommended
After Cranksgiving, there will be an award ceremony at a home a short pedal away from City Park - food and drinks will be provided.
Cranksgiving is a wonderful event that's been going on since 1999, and there are now over 80 rides around the U.S. If there's one thing that's better than riding a bike, it's riding a bike for a good cause.
