Miles for Meals Cyclists Raise Awareness about Hunger

Jul17

The biking trio - Connor, Evan, and Tony - arrived at the Food Bank eager to volunteer after biking 15 miles from North Austin to South Austin. After traveling more than 1,000 miles from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a 15 mile bike ride is a short trek.

The group of friends is on their Miles for Meals campaign, travelling more than 3,000 miles on their bikes across the country in ten weeks from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to San Francisco, California, with the goal of raising funds and awareness about hunger in America. With one in eight individuals facing hunger nationwide, they decided to partner with Feeding America, the nationwide network of 200 food banks, including the Central Texas Food Bank, that leads the fight against hunger in the United States.

“We’re the wealthiest nation in the country, yet we still have people who don’t have housing, who can’t feed themselves, and can’t do a number of things that should be given rights to people,” Connor said. “They shouldn’t be worried about hunger.”

After mentoring and tutoring middle school students, Connor realized that many kids relied on the free or reduced price meals they receive at school and that many didn’t have enough to eat on the weekends. As recent college graduates, Connor and his friends were inspired to cycle across the nation to help make a difference.

As part of their campaign, the cyclists are stopping at seven food banks across the nation to volunteer. The Central Texas Food Bank was the fourth stop on their journey.

After three hours of volunteering in our product recovery warehouse, they left teary-eyed and with the distinct scent of onions following their trail after helping inspect and sort hundreds of pounds of onions. Despite their red eyes, the volunteer experience they had at the Central Texas Food Bank has been the best one on their journey so far, Connor said.

Though it has been a fun trip, it has not been easy. The group had to cycle through a tropical storm and the Texas heat has been the most challenging.  Once they reach San Francisco, the friends’ joke that they will throw their bikes into the ocean and never do a bike cross country trip again.

The friends are more than halfway through their trip and have raised more than $4,500 of their $5,000 goal.

 “It’s a little funny doing it in a bike trip and making it fun,  but the more people we talk to, the more money we raise, the more times we volunteer, and the little more we’re able to actualize that goal of hunger alleviation,” Connor said.