Together we can do so much: Partnerships in the bike movement

Back in 2017, SVBC adopted a diversity, equity and inclusion plan that elevated two main principles for advancing the organization’s work, social justice and cultural humility. The process spurred SVBC to be more intentional about seeking out unexpected partnerships, to widen the organization’s perspective, to forge alliances with people and organizations outside of the typical pro-bike movement. These steps were intended to help grow the number and types of people who ride bicycles and to advance our mission to improve the community, environment and economy.

Today, the fruits of that plan are evident in several new programs and partnerships, one of which is with Veggielution. Let me tell you about it.

First, it’s important to note that none of this work would be possible without the support of different foundations and grant-making entities. Over the past few years, the Knight Foundation, El Camino Healthcare District, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Energy Foundation, and the County of Santa Clara have all provided support to SVBC to pursue the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion goals.

Starting with a fun ride series supported by Knight, SVBC was paid to organize themed rides with unique partners. One of those rides focused on urban agriculture and visited Our City Forest, Valley Verde and Veggielution.

The ride allowed SVBC and Valley Verde to get to know each other’s work and to build relationships with the staff at each organization. It is because of that that when the pandemic hit, Valley Verde felt very comfortable reaching out to SVBC with an idea. Their annual seedling fundraiser had to be canceled due to Covid so instead...Would we be able to mobilize people who ride bicycles to help Valley Verde deliver seedlings to low income families who could then grow their own food?

SVBC’s first reaction? “Wow! What a great thing to be able to do.” The second reaction was, “how are we going to do this?” The financial impacts of the virus were not good to the organization’s bottom line and we had reduced staff by 2.5 people. We were scrambling to understand the implications of the virus on our future ability to operate and raise money. In the midst of that chaos, with reduced staff, could we create a whole new, untested program?

With that all swirling, we decided to go for it. We approached two of our funders, the Community Benefit Grant Program of El Camino Healthcare District and the County of Santa Clara to ask if we could repurpose grant money for this program, especially since we would not be able to accomplish the original grant programs due to Covid. They said yes!

So, we went forward. We didn’t know how folks would respond to a call for volunteers in the midst of a highly contagious virus. But the grant money from these organizations allowed SVBC to take a risk, experiment, and find out. It turns out we were flooded with volunteers. You, the good supporters of SVBC, responded with such an eagerness that we had to turn 100 volunteers away. The seedling delivery program was a great success and it helped us understand our capabilities while deepening a partnership with Valley Verde.

And here’s the even better part. A few of the staff and family from Veggielution came out to volunteer for the seedling delivery days with Valley Verde because they had an idea. They wanted to see if they could do something similar with their East Side Connect program to deliver boxes of food by bike to families in their neighborhood.

Conversations with Veggielution subsequently led to an application to the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority for money to support the program for three years. The grant was awarded and in April, SVBC will begin a program to deliver 40 boxes of food by bike each week to families in East San Jose. It is our hope that these types of collaborations will help SVBC be a better partner and advocate for all who need to get around, moving beyond our historical focus on those who are already a part of the biking mainstream. (If you want to volunteer to help deliver farm boxes by bike, sign up here.)

There’s a saying, the origins of which are attributed to Helen Keller, that goes, "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." We at SVBC are grateful to the funders that recognize the importance of investing in partner development that can lead us all to do so much, together. We’re also grateful to be enabled to take risks. And we’re grateful to the passionate people who ride bicycles for making these programs a success so that, together, we can build a better community, environment and economy through the every day use of the bicycle.