Collaborators
- Bikespace CIC
- Drift Advice
- Four Greens Community Trust
Collective’s aims and ideas
Our idea is to create a pilot project that will deliver food bank items to those in need in the community of Whitleigh. The food will be delivered using electric Cargo bikes. Deliveries will happen 1-2 times a week (depending on demand) over a 3 month period.
The aim of the project is to:
Deliver food to isolated and vulnerable community members.
Show how zero carbon transport alternatives can replace petrol / diesel vans.
This project is based on the experience of Bikespace working with Four Green Community Trust. Four Greens borrowed a cargo bike to do food bank deliveries, which was successful. Funding is now required to expand that initial pilot project and understand what works, how can this be expanded to other parts of the city and what is the true cost to deliver this type of project.
This project will see Bikespace going to Four Greens each week and deliver food bank parcels to local people in Whitleigh. We would expect to reach at least 10 families on a weekly basis. The project will last for 3 months, this will enable us to understand how the project works, what works well and how we can improve it.
The project is important because it will help tackle food poverty and isolation in Whitleigh (for those who can’t get to Fourgreen’s to pick up food) and showcase the potential of a zero carbon transport alternative, which will educate people about other methods of delivery.
We want to achieve the following outcomes:
Reduce food poverty in communities.
Increase the awareness of zero carbon alternative transport methods.
We believe this is important because it means people who are still isolated from COVID can receive much needed food. It will support those who lack confidence to get food from a food bank because they may be embarrassed by their situation, and showcase the potential of alternative transport vehicles.
How will they work together to achieve this?
Bikespace has experience of working with Four Green Community Trust and has a very positive relationship with their team. Mark Rowles is excited by this pilot project and is very keen to see the impact electric cargo bikes have on food bank deliveries.
Paul from Drift has worked with both Gareth from Bikesapce and Mark from Four Greens, Paul will use his experience of project management and evaluation to support the creation and monitoring of the project. The evaluation report will inform future applications to expand on these projects in the future.
Bikespace will bring the bikes and experience of cargo bike delivery to this project. The Bikespace team will maintain and manage deliveries. The team will collect food from shops and of course deliver to families.
Four Greens will collect and store food bank items. They will also compile the details of those who require food bank deliveries.
Drift will support the setup of the project and develop the monitoring and evaluation process. Drift will also produce the final report.
The partnership covers all the bases to ensure this is a successful project, which is professionally delivered and evaluated.
The joint skills and experience should ensure that this project grows in the future and hopefully inspire similar projects across Plymouth.
During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?
We would like advice on how to roll the project out further in to Plymouth if the pilot is successful.
