The Martlet

UVic students to cycle 1,000 km for food awareness

Emily Kay — pictured above with the love of her life, “Conrad” the bike —will be cycling along the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island to tell youth about the importance of sustainability.

Mark Worthing

A parade of vibrant cyclists has set an ambitious route to pedal their message of sustainability to youth along the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island.

A group of about 12–15 cyclists, including UVic students Emily Kay and Melissa Hull, will travel more than 1,000 kilometres, starting in September. The trip will begin in the Fraser Valley. After doing a loop around the Lower Mainland they will head north up the Sunshine Coast to Powel River where they will cross the Salish Sea to Courtenay, travel up to Campbell River, and then descend to Victoria around Oct. 26.

“When I saw the Sunshine Coast tour, I just knew: this is my place, this is my tour,” said Kay. “One thing that struck me with this tour in particular is that this is my home. I identify with the coast and I want to learn more about it, see it and explore it.”

The organization facilitating the program is called the Otesha Project. Founded in Canada in 2002, they have been doing youth-education rides every year since then.

The Otesha Project is a national non-profit organization that seeks to educate and empower youth to make sustainable lifestyle decisions and consumer choices. They have connected with over 115,000 Canadian youth, and are hoping to connect with 2,000 more during the fall’s Sunshine Coast tour.

“Their whole goal is to educate youth about environmental sustainability, and social justice, and in turn to inspire them to make sustainable choices for the future, for everybody. And for me that’s the most important thing,” said Hull. “It really touched me because we’re counting on them to build our future for us. If we can inspire young people to love the earth and love each other in the process, then we’ll all be better off for it. So that’s what I want to do.”

“Food production will be the focus for our program, which will be super rad because it’s the Coast, it’s the Island, and it’s the harvest in the fall,” said Kay.

Before Kay and Hull hit the road, they will need to fundraise about $2,250 to keep the wheels rolling. For every dollar donated they will ride 50 metres. The funding won’t just go to making the distance, it will go to the youth education’s skits, dances, interactive performances and community.

Hull, originally from Newfoundland, is considering packing bricks in her panniers to train for the 70 kilometres a day she is expecting to ride. The riders will also be hauling their own food and sleeping gear. The group meets in Vancouver for a week prior to their voyage to plan their skits and workshops.

“I’ve never done any theatre, but I’m totally looking forward to it. I’m excited about it,” said Hull.

With food production as the theme for the Sunshine Coast ride, the tour is part of a growing community of local, sustainable agricultural food mavericks that are calling for food production reforms.

“I think food production is so vital in our health and in our identity. And I think those are two things that are kind of in crisis right now,” said Kay.

“We don’t really have a solid foundation or a grip on what we’re doing as a culture and a society as a whole. Food connects us to the land, it connects us to each other and to our own health and bodies.”

There will be two other rides happening this year in Canada — the Phenomenal Food Tour, riding from Kitchener/Waterloo to Ottawa, and the Pedal to Plate Tour that will circumnavigate Ottawa.