After a rainy fall season, we were so excited to finally host our Tour de Farms Bike Tour this past Saturday, November 18th!
Although we have hosted bike rides in the past, this was our first official Tour De Farms and it was the largest group of riders we’ve ever had! GCF Advocate and former GCF staff, Bahij Chancey, led over 30 riders on an 11 mile bike ride tour across four boroughs, two Eco-Hub sites, and finally to our graduate Domingo Morales’ Compost Power site in Williamsburg.
After fueling up on some juice shots from Honey Brains and filling up their Swell water bottles, riders took off to their first stop at our Wagner Eco-Hub in East Harlem. GCF Senior Service Coordinator, Hakim Jeffrey, led a tour around the site and spoke about our work and our commitment to the public housing community. After a quick snack break, riders took off to their final destination – Compost Power! Riders warmed up from the cold with some hot drinks, beer from Other Half Brewing Company and warm sandwiches and took a lesson from Domingo himself on how compost is processed by his team. Before riders headed home, we closed up the day with a raffle with numerous prizes from the local community and every rider went home with some dry shampoo from our partner, Amika!
Check out photos from the day here!
While we were in Williamsburg, our teams across all six Eco-Hubs were distributing fresh produce for our last farm stand of the season. At our Forest and Wagner Eco-Hub site, 4 lucky residents took home a brand new bike, helmet, and bike lock!
Thank you to our riders, volunteers, and supporters for making our first annual Tour De Farms bike ride such a success – we couldn’t have done it without you! A special thank you to our sponsor, BNP Paribas and our supporters:
- Forest Houses Tenant Association
- Wagner Houses Tenant Association
- Alex Zablocki, The Public Housing Community Fund
- John Lisbon, New York City Housing Authority
- Swell
- Honey Brains
- Other Half Brewing Company
- Amika
- Eva NYC
- Green Mustache
- Patagonia
- Sojo Spa Club
- City Winery
- Vital Climbing Gym
- Wollman Rink
- Beat the Bomb
- Laser Bounce
- Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
- Trader Joe’s – Williamsburg
- Shake Shack
- Sugar Hill Creamery
- Wander and Perch
Last but not least, our heartfelt gratitude to Domingo Morales and the Compost Power for hosting us in their beautiful waterfront space.
If you’re interested in learning more about Compost Power, please visit their website here and check out this NY Times article that just came out this past weekend about Domingo’s journey to Compost Power.
With Giving Tuesday just around the corner, if you are interested in supporting graduates like Domingo, we hope you will consider making a donation to GCF.