Cycle Lewes Food Bank Deliveries
Photo credit: Roz Bassford
By Ian McKay
Introduction
If your bike can take panniers or has a basket, you could join Cycle Lewes as they ferry food donations from the supermarkets of Lewes over to the Malling Food Bank hosted at King’s Church on Brooks Road. It is fun, and heart-warming. It happens about four times a year on a Saturday morning and the event has been running for a few years now. It is a great way to show-off the functional power of the bicycle to other shoppers and road users as they see anywhere from 5 to 30 kg (possibly more) get loaded up and be ridden with evident ease and swiftness. It makes bicycle shopping seem more of a social norm, and a nifty transport solution. For those who get involved it is a rewarding experience at many levels.
Image credit: Alexis Maryon
Many hands make light work
What might seem a veritable mountain of food donations will disappear quickly with even just a handful of cyclist participants. Some bring just a front basket, others rear and/or front panniers and some will bring electrically assisted cargo bikes which can move huge amounts in one trip.
The ferrying work is only the tip of the food collecting iceberg with a veritable army of volunteers behind the scenes planning, co-ordinating and executing a detailed plan leading-up to the collection day itself. One of the core Lewes food bank organisers Mark Perryman tabulated the following contributions after a collection in October 2022:
“…8 Lewes sport clubs, 3 faith groups, 3 political parties, 3 live bands, 2 choirs, 2 bonfire societies, 1 cinema, 1 health centre, 1 cycle pick up crew, 1 book group, 1 group of Artwave artists, 1 Rotary Club and 1 pantomime cast plus tens of individual Lewes volunteers collected for the 3 Lewes food banks and the Ringmer Village food bank too, helping to feed our community through the worst excesses of the social emergency.”
What to expect
Image credit: Ian McKay
If you want to take part, here are some useful pointers on what to expect:
Cycle Lewes members receive notifications about upcoming foodbank delivery events with a final email issued just prior with details of where and when to meet, as directed by the Foodbank organisers.
Food bank deliveries are normally on a Saturday with kick-off at a particular supermarket by around 10:30am or 11:00am.
Depending on which has been chosen as the starting supermarket, after a few runs to King’s Church the group will switch to the second and finally the third of the Lewes supermarkets.
The event usually completes within 60 to 90 minutes depending on the numbers and types of bikes attending.
Food bank volunteers at each supermarket will help identify what packages need delivering and at King’s Church more volunteers will cheerfully help you decant the load.
Because of the traffic gyratory outside Waitrose, it is advisable to walk the bike to the eastbound side of the Phoenix Causeway, via the pedestrian crossing prior to cycling off to King’s Church.
If you are not used to carrying heavy loads on a bike, be mindful that the handling of a bike does become more sluggish in acceleration and steering when under load.
When loading and unloading, try and ensure you have a solid place to lean your bike against first such that it does not start to roll, rotate and fall over in the process.
Be mindful of shoppers as the collection areas tend to be close to the entrances of the supermarkets.
Image credit: Alexis Maryon