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A new partnership between Community Cycles and Boulder Food Rescue in Boulder, Colorado highlights a great way to deliver goods without the use of fossil fuels — and raise the profile of bicycle advocacy.

Boulder Food Rescue (BFR) is an all-volunteer nonprofit that receives donated food from grocery stores and transports it to charities serving hungry, homeless and at-risk individuals. When BFR volunteers found out that Community Cycles offers free bike trailer rentals to members, they contacted the organization to see if they too could access this valuable resource. BFR now does 75 percent of its deliveries by bicycle — transporting about 150 pounds each day in Community Cycles’ trailers.

Using Community Cycles trailers saves BFR money on gasoline, car maintenance and other costs, and brings volunteers who deliver food one step closer to the communities they serve. But BFR isn’t the only one that benefits from this partnership.

“It helps our mission by getting people to do more on bikes” says Sue Prant, Community Cycles’ Advocacy Director. The program sets an example that carrying things in bike trailers can be a fun, efficient and cost-effective option for a variety of individuals and organizations.

The first Community Cycles trailer was donated six years ago, and the nonprofit purchased one each year for the following three years. Their bike trailer inventory now includes three large Bikes at Work Trailers, and two Croozer Trailers. The 64-inch long Bikes at Work trailers are well-suited to large, heavy loads, while the roughly 3-foot Croozer trailers work well for more modest cargo. The organization also has an Xtracycle trailer that they use for Rolling Bike Clinics — bicycle powered shops that fix broken bikes in low income neighborhoods.

Sue says that the trailers have proved a great investment for Community Cycles, and she recommends them to other organizations that have the space.

“We do get people joining just because of the trailers,” says Sue. “Also, our big trailers have spawned more trailers. The city has bought two of them—one to move mobile bike parking for the farmer’s market and one to do greenways maintenance.”

Learn more about Community Cycles here.