Ted Forgeron is a longtime customer of Bike Gallery who recently retired from Intel after 27 years. His new passion is delivering food to seniors through the Meals on Wheels program — and he does it all by bike!

I have always been interested in the Loaves and Fishes program called Meals on Wheels. The problem was that I just couldn’t bring myself to using a car to do the deliveries for the obvious expense and environmental reasons. When Loaves and Fishes introduced a bicycle delivery program this Spring, I was all over it. Now I deliver meals to between 10 and 15 elderly shut-ins every Tuesday from the Loaves and Fishes Beaverton kitchen at the Elsie Stuhr Senior Center. Loaves and Fishes supplies a Burley bike trailer to pull. The food goes into a pair of ice chests strapped to the trailer. One ice chest is for cold food and one is for hot food. A route map is in a case securely velcroed to the handlebars. They even supply helpful background information on each of the elderly recipients so you know ahead if they have any special needs. One of my clients has a dog who is just as excited to receive the dog treat that I bring as their owner is to receive the meals. All you need to bring is a bike and a caring smile.

Thanks to Burley, Loaves and Fishes has a bike delivery trailer at each of their kitchens in the Portland area. If you would like to help senior citizens and make a difference in their lives while getting some good clean exercise, contact Loaves and Fishes. There’s more about Meals On Two Wheels, including online signup here. You can see a recruiting poster here. Feel free to print it and post in your business or place of work.