Cargo

Tearing through a deserted city centre on £2k’s worth of bicycle that doesn’t belong

to you is surely a novel way of spending a lockdown evening.

But hold the presses - ‘Middle-aged civil servant in lockdown cycle-theft rampage’ -

I’m helping shuttle leftover food from supermarkets to foodbanks and homeless

shelters. Streetwork, part of the Simon Community, is using unwanted food to

support homeless and vulnerable people across the city. It’s also proving to be a

great way of tackling food waste for supermarkets, a perennial headache for them in

terms of disposal.

Every day, a tireless crew of Streetwork volunteers, supplemented by staff from Cycling Scotland and members of Ronde Cycling Club, is piloting a fleet of superb electric cargo bikes. Thanks to the generosity of Edinburgh Bike Co-Op and The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling we have some fantastic bikes to ride while regular mechanical back-up comes from Electric Cycles.

Funnily enough for someone in a cycling club, I like bikes…a lot. But I’d never

considered cargo bikes in anything other than an abstract ‘Hey those look cool’ sort

of way. Frankly, cargo bikes are amazing. Add electric assist and it’s…super

amazing. For town-dwellers, they’d make perfect sense. Low cost in fuel terms

(electricity for the battery, cake for the pilot), enough power for hills and small

enough to make parking a non-issue. If local authorities can come up with secure on-

street cycle parking – cargo bikes wouldn’t be great up and down four flights of stairs

- these could really catch on.

After a wobbly introduction to riding a cargo bike, we’re led out by our Forager-In-

Chief, Cathy from Streetwork.

First stop, M & S on Princes Street. A couple of cages bulging with yellow-stickered

items appears. Cakes. Bread. Croissants. Pies. Flowers…flowers? We’ll take

anything. Fully loaded, we swoop down to the Cairn Hotel on Windsor Street,

currently providing accommodation for homeless people. Unloading is a bit tricky at

first. Instinct is just to hand stuff to waiting staff…but then you remember physical

distancing. Still the tireless staff at the Cairn are slick operators and they quickly

pack up our haul.

Over the evening we visit local Tesco supermarkets, learning where we need to park, who to speak to and what we need to look out for. General rule is really quite sensible – if you wouldn’t eat it yourself, don’t expect anyone else to. Out on the road it’s clear that cargo bikes aren’t exactly common in Edinburgh, with several Deliveroo riders giving us a wave, passers-by ask for photos and even a passing police patrol slows

to watch us.

Streetwork provides supplies for several different initiatives across the city. Each has its own needs and requirements. Some want only pre-prepared food and fruit. Others, like the foodbank operating on Bread Street, want bread, canned or packet items and fresh vegetables. As well as picking up donations from supermarkets, the

cargo bikes shuttle items between these different organisations to avoid food going

to waste. Sometimes Streetwork has to refuse some donations simply because no-

one can use it before it’s inedible. Food waste is food waste no matter who puts it in

the bin.

After three or more hours riding round the city, it’s back to base. Bikes are stored

away, batteries plugged in and us trainee pilots are grinning and agree we’ll be back

for more.

Streetwork are active across Edinburgh and Glasgow. You can support them by

giving donations (see http://www.streetwork.org.uk/donate-3/)