burritoriders

Happy New Year! I just got done sending out an message for our email list subscribers What’s that you say? You’re not on it yet?? Click to remedy that!

Our URL, http://burritoriders.org, now directs you to this WordPress blog. This is exciting, perhaps just to me, but it is.

The making of burritos and bicycle delivery to the community are the most obvious ways that we need supported, but did you know that the easiest, but no less important, way to serve with us is to help spread the word and recruit! Here are some of our links, which you can quickly share on your Facebook walls and email to folks you know who might like to serve with us, and who might also like to share our mission. We’re kind of a pyramid scheme like that, but a pyramid scheme for GOOD!

• Here is the link to sign up for our email list: http://eepurl.com/sWG9b . This email is great because while FB only publishes some of what we post to the page, you get everything that we send from the list.
• Our Fundrazr link, for those who want to help, but can’t do so in a hands-on fashion themselves: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/fIcmf?psid=d7c81ba234054aa785bb64b308061ecf This link is great because every time someone gives it enables us to pay for someone else who might like to serve, but can’t afford to themselves.
• For folks who just want to know more about what we do, send them a link for our site: http://burritosriders.org
• And finally, tell folks to “Like” us on our FB page, http://facebook.com/burritoriders. It is now just one of several ways of conveying information, but it will still serve as an outlet for updates and it gives us an idea of how many people might be in our audience and interested in what we do!

These are our hand-out materials for folks that we encounter along the way, who may need access to services

As you know, our next Burrito Ride is January the 5th and the following ride for January will take place on the 19th. We’re always looking for folks to make burritos and to ride. If you would like to make burritos, check out our blog where we have simplified the look up of important items. Instead of searching down through our FB wall, or albums, you can now go straight to the page for the info you seek. Riders and Rollers can find info to serve on the same page. This page is new, and being updated continually, but if you have any questions that we don’t cover, or suggestions for the page, please let us know so we can help make the page as effective as it can be.

We have a couple more items that we are working on for the Burrito Riders as well. It’s still a work in progress, as is the rest of the site, but check out our “Wishlist” page and help us share that too. There are some larger items on there, such as used bicycles and new (but inexpensive) helmets, but we are definitely wanting to get our hygiene kit initiative into gear. Any of the items on that list that you could procure for us, preferably in quantity, we would love to start collecting. To begin with we have a gross of toothbrushes and Mortenson Dental donated about 180 tubes of toothpaste. We still need everything else though!

Individually wrapped toothbrushes, ordered online for $10/gross

Samples donated by a local dentist’s office

At the end of the day, we are a very “grassroots” collection of people who want to help people. We need you, and the people you know, to help make this happen. Whether through physical involvement, donation gathering, word of mouth marketing, it takes a community to care for our community. Get involved in some manner, and have a good time with it. We aim to make it as easy as possible for people to contribute to the cause. We can sometimes pay for the burritos you make, if you can’t afford to. We’ll soon be able to provide a bicycle for those who want to ride, but don’t have their own bike.

But most importantly, if not with the BR, volunteer your time somewhere. Find a way, even a small way, to help make things better for someone.

Thanks everyone! And, as always, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

My lovely wife, Amanda, directing the kitchen

Well, success in the WV! Huge thanks to the folks of Huntington who supported the BR and came out for this phenomenal service opportunity! We had a whole bunch of folks out on Sunday night to help cook and assemble the burritos; there were family and old friends there to help, and lots of kids to entertain us while we worked. All in all, we produced 286 burritos for the local community! I don’t know yet all of the particulars from our Louisville effort, Christmas busy-ness and all, but as I understand it we put out about 200 burritos in the 5-0-2! More to come on that leg of the tour as I connect with folks there.
In addition to our 286 burritos, we also dispatched volunteers to the Ronald McDonald
House early on Christmas Eve so that they could cook a wonderful pasta dinner (and lots of it!), complete with bread and salad, for a different sort of displaced folks; people who are having to be away from their families because they have a child, or children, in the local hospital.

The Rolling Crew!

Christmas Eve morning, several of us went down to the Huntington City Mission and handed out burritos during their breakfast. It was so awesome to see all of these folks there with the BR, begin to grab gloves and help out wherever they were needed around the Mission dining room; we served food and drinks, talked and shared, and cleared plates. We distributed about 142 burritos inside of the mission and then a couple of us left there and headed over to a local domestic violence shelter and gave 30 more for the women and children living there.
Yesterday, Wednesday, a few of us got the remaining 114 burritos and delivered them to both the Homeless Veterans Resource Center , as well as making a second stop at the City Mission. I loved the amazing support we got within our home community, including First United Methodist Church generously supplying the kitchen, and we will do this again (albeit on a smaller scale) for future weekends spent at home. Once we do it for the first time, it just makes it easier to do it again!

The Whole Burrito Gang!

Clearly, we did it big for Huntington’s first BR event, but every time we serve, whether it’s 50 burritos or 250, we do it BIG because we love BIG. Come check out what we do sometime! If you haven’t volunteered with us yet, now is the time. Share this email, visit our Facebook page, check out our new site, this one,  which we’ll soon be migrating to the burritoriders.org URL. Spread the word and help us grow this thing!

Danny and Jessica, labelin’

Brennan, supplying the motivation

     As we serve, many come and go. Some are quiet, preferring to get their burrito and go back to what they are doing, while others really seem to enjoy the opportunity for conversation, connectedness. Our food is fleeting, on the larger scale, but we hope that we are able to build relationships that will last far longer. It isn’t unusual at all for us to stop to hand out some burritos and become involved in lengthy dialog with some of our folks, providing us with an opportunity to understand them better in the hopes that we can better understand how to serve them.

This is Warren Chapman. He is one of our many “regulars,” who we look forward to seeing and checking in on. We’re really excited for Warren, he’s been working as a security guard for about 8 or so weeks now, taking care of his needs. I first talked with Warren about his job when he’d been working there about 2 weeks and he was so excited to have a light at the end of his tunnel. I asked him how he likes his job (he loves it) and if they (his bosses) treated him well. He just smiled this big smile and said that it didn’t matter because he has a job, and he’s taking care of himself again. He told me that he mostly worked by himself overnight, patrolling and monitoring the parking lots, and that they usually left him alone as long as he was doing a good job, which he was sure to point out that he did. He has an 8 year old son, Yahweh Warren, with whom he also hopes to be reunited once he gets himself into a better place. He is a man with big plans, optimism, and a lot of faith. When I stood next to him, as he told me about his life and his struggles, I couldn’t help but size myself up in my daily goals and accomplishments. On my worst day, I don’t have nearly the obstacles to overcome that he does, but I couldn’t avoid thinking of how much more I could be doing with my own life and opportunities.

He’s still living at Wayside, but he’s planning to move out after the holidays. He hopes to get into an apartment with the help of a Salvation Army program, so that he can free up his spot at Wayside for someone who needs it more. He’s also got himself a bus ticket to go home and spend Christmas with his elderly mother, whom he hasn’t been able to see in 8 years. I loaned him my phone so that he could call her and let her know what his plans were, his own phone was limited to local calls. From where I stood, I could tell that he was excited to see her. I could tell from his side of the conversation that she was fretting over the details of his travel. He was elated when he got off of the phone.

We are blessed to get to share in the lives of folks like Warren. There really isn’t very much that separates us from the folks we serve, many of them in a situation that they never could have foreseen ending up in. Beyond the folks who we encounter each time we ride, there are thousands more out there that are maybe one catastrophic event from poverty, living paycheck to paycheck, or not quite, and then a car breakdown or a trip to the ER sends them spiraling financially into the margins of society. Something as basic as teaching our kids how to be responsible with finances at a young age can help protect the next generation. As for Warren, I look forward to his updates when we ride, and he assures me that, even after he moves out, he’s still going to come see us on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays whenever he’s able! 🙂

Our WV Christmas Ride is ON!
Response has been OVERWHELMING and we cannot wait!

Last night I sent out an email for our Louisville folks, now I’m talkin’ to YOU, West Virginia! Being a native of Huntington, I could not be more excited to be able to bring the Burrito Ride “back east.” I have to acknowledge that I wouldn’t be able to do this if it weren’t for the amazing response from folks back home. There is no better way that I could choose to spend Christmas Eve, but with passionate volunteer family and friends helping those who could use some love.

If you are one of the folks who has volunteered to help out for our Christmas Eve Burrito Ride, either by providing food or by riding, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much your love and service mean to us and what it will mean for a lot of surprised folks on Christmas Eve. Because we, the Burrito Riders, are trying to say “Hello!” in a big way in Huntington, we actually have settled on some different ways to serve in order to broaden our impact. In addition to the usual BR style of bringing food to the shelters and the streets, we are also cooking dinner for the displaced families who are spending the holidays in the Ronald McDonald House so that they can stay near their hospitalized kids, and we are serving lunch to the folks at the Homeless veterans Center we’ll be serving a post holiday lunch for the Homeless Veterans Center the day after Christmas! We’ll be cooking the pasta dinner (I know, we’re the BURRITO Riders!) early in the morning at the RMHouse for them to heat up at the end of their day.

I have got people lined up to help out both with the burrito cooking, which, again, we are doing a little differently than we usually do. Typically the burritos for our Louisville rides are made by families, individuals, and small groups, who then bring them to the nearest rider to be kept fridged for the night and heated up in the morning. We wanted our first WV event to be a bit of a party, so much gratitude to Jane Morse and First United Methodist Church for hosting the lot of us to make burritos all together in their large kitchen!

In the meantime, if you’re rolling please check out our recipe on FB, in case you wonder what we’ll be doing, and have a look at our DIY burrito rolling video as you prepare mentally! 😉 It can all be easily found in our Facebook Photo albums.

Stay tuned for details as they come. I’ll reach out with FUMC’s address and our start time (probably 6) shortly. We’ll also designate a meeting time and place for the following morning.

I cannot tell you how much it means to us to have your help. I hope that this is merely one of MANY experiences you have helping out in your community through the Burrito Riders of Louisville! Thank you, and Merry Christmas!

If you need anything at all, or have any additional questions about this, or any, Burrito Riders event, please email me with a quickness! I am usually found at tim@burritoriders.org.

To date, we have delivered over 2700 of these!

Our Christmas ride is ON!
Response has been rockin’ and we are excited!
If you are one of the folks who has volunteered to help out for our Christmas Eve Burrito Ride, either by providing food or by riding, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much your love and service mean to us and to the community which we serve. Which YOU serve! 🙂

I have some info for my LOUISVILLE Xmas folks:
John Nolan is going to be taking over the reigns for this affair starting tomorrow. I am headed out to deliver some equally amazing volunteer action to some people who need to see a little burrito and a lot of love in Huntington, WV! I will touch base with everyone who is volunteering and provide John’s email and number to you tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you’re rolling please check out our recipe on FB.
And have a look at our DIY burrito rolling video!

Let me know if any of these links don’t work, I’ll see if I can fix it. Otherwise, it can all be easily found in our Facebook Photo albums.

Our riders will be meeting at the Kroger on Goss Ave, near Eastern Parkway. This Xmas Eve ride is NOT a bicycle outing. We just figure that with all that you may have scheduled for he holiday, not biking would simplify the morning and speed distribution up a bit. I figure that you’ll meet at about 7:45am, but I’ll leave it up to John to confirm a meet time.

I cannot tell you how much it means to us to have your help. I hope that this is merely one of MANY experiences you have helping out in your community through the Burrito Riders of Louisville! Thank you, and Merry Christmas!

If you need anything at all, or have any additional questions about this, or any, Burrito Riders event, please email me with a quickness! I am usually found at tim@burritoriders.org.

To date, we have delivered over 2700 of these!

Welcome to the potentially new home of the Burrito Riders of Louisville on the web! We are trying out this WordPress page as a possible affordable web solution in order to have a presence beyond just Facebook, handy as that is.

We have been growing slowly and steadily since we had our first Burrito Ride, back in mid-March. That morning, five of us set out with 10 burritos which took us all of three hours to give away as we fumbled through downtown Louisville attempting to figure out what potential this ministry had. Now several months, and 2500 burritos later, we are a solid fixture in the downtown community. Each ride, for us, is an opportunity to connect with someone new, provide them with a warm, hearty burrito, and show them some love and respect.

In the time that we have been committed to this service, my biggest realization has been the fact that we are not so different from the folks we serve. Too many of us live on the knife’s edge, balancing security against tragedy, and for a lot of people out there the margin is slim. Many of your neighbors may be one car breakdown, or one ER visit, away from calamity. The rumors and accusations that exist about the population in need are inaccurate and many people would be surprised to discover that these are good people who want to improve their situation and just need a chance to redeem themselves.

The Burrito Riders will do what we can to serve this community and respect those who are in need. This isn’t charity, this is brotherhood. If we don’t take care of each other, who will?

Here are some places that you can find us:

Our Facebook page is http://facebook.com/burritoriders

You can sign up for our emailing list (please do!) here.

You can reach Tim Adkins via email.

Want to see “how we roll?” Our recipe is here, and our DIY rolling video is here.

Want to support the BR, but can’t ride or cook? You can donate and enable others to cook, who might not otherwise be able to afford to!