14,000 Miles to Go

"Feed us… Feed us…"

"For every pound of food they deliver, I will ride one mile."

Those words have caused so much pain but brought so much joy.

Those were my words to a colleague when a Feeding America / Foodbank of Southern Colorado semi-truck delivered food from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Little did I know that the driver would move the two pallets I saw and unload another fifteen or so to total seven tons of food. That promise would stoke my passion for bridging the food security gap, push me to ride my bicycle, and create #race2endhunger.

Little did I know that I found my passion!

Let me tell you the backstory…  

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was invited to attend a Ute Mountain Ute Tribal leadership team meeting and the Tribe's elders. During that meeting, a teammate was streaming and translating the meeting from Ute to English via Facebook live. While she was translating, something she said caused me to take notice. An elderly woman was urging the Tribal Council to do whatever was necessary to ensure the Tribal members were fed. She told the story of previous pandemics when the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe faced hunger and uncertainty, and her concern was that COVID-19 would cause the same issues. That led me to LinkedIn message Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of Feeding America, whom TIME Magazine would choose as TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2020. 

That single LinkedIn message has led me to so many new venues where my passion for getting people (specifically the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe) what they need and riding my bicycle have come together.

What began as a smart-mouthed comment morphed into a full-blown effort to make good on my promise. 

I reached out to Gene Gurkoff, the Charity Miles app's CEO, to see if we could use the fundraising platform for Feeding America, and we launched team #race2endhunger. 

Jason Kintzler from LifeKey Wearables jumped on-board with gear and schwag to keep me safe on the ride. KOM Cycling provided a cycling computer mount and flat repair gear. Then I went full-tilt and reached out to a bicycling clothing manufacturer to design and produce a cycling kit that would highlight the work of riding 14,000 miles for Feeding America. 

I am working with a bicycling clothing manufacturer on the second iteration of our riding kit.

This year, we will keep Charity Miles, LifeKey Wearables, and KOM Cycling. However, we are adding Kindhumans. The work #race2endhunger and Kindhumans are complimentary and I look forward to being a Kindhuman ambassador.

I have been relatively quiet on LinkedIn and other social media platforms, but I am going to make a public appeal for your - LinkedIn Community's help.

WILL YOU JOIN OUR CHARITY MILES APP TEAM AND RIDE WITH US?

You can ride, run, hike, walk, crawl, and do anything else to move forward in eliminating the food security issues we have seen grow during this pandemic.

Check out this brief blog post for Feeding America:

I was able to collaborate with Keystone Policy Center and Ernest House, their Senior Policy Director American Indian/Alaska Native Programs to discuss this need on their Keynotes Podcast.

We also sat down with them to discuss other needs in Indian Country and the 4-Corners in Episodes 2-4.

We will be launching the #race2endhunger website in the near future and we look forward to bringing together our passion for food security and cycling.

Join us as we #race2endhunger.

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