The Great American Deli Schlep Is One Rider’s Tour To Fight Hunger (RideApart)
This article first appeared in RideApart.
If there’s one good thing you can say about 2020, it’s that it made a lot of people want to get out and explore on their own. As the usual ways of entertaining ourselves shut down, many people went camping, or on long motorcycle trips. Sometimes they combined the two. While moto-camping was certainly a thing in the Before Times, something about that particular flavor of freedom hit different after the pandemic changed the world.
On June 1, 2021, Chicago-area motorcyclist Steve Goode embarked on a new cross-country motorcycle journey of his own. The trip is called the Great American Deli Schlep, because Goode will be hitting up 42 Jewish delis around the country, in just 75 days of riding. Along the way, he’ll also be raising money and awareness to fight America’s growing hunger problem.
Goode partnered with Jewish anti-hunger nonprofit MAZON for this journey, and he’ll be updating a blog on MAZON’s site about his progress along the way. The trip started at Manny’s Deli, a Chicago staple. From there, Goode started heading east, before he’ll loop south, west, north, and finally start heading home again. If all goes according to plan, the GADS should conclude sometime in mid-August, 2021. He’s a seasoned motorcycle tourer, so things will probably go relatively smoothly.
While Goode looks forward to enjoying plenty of delicious sandwiches and pickles along the way, his deli stops won’t be for lunch alone. At each stop, Goode plans to engage with the local community to discuss America’s hunger problem, and what we can do to solve it. Goode’s partner organization on this trip, MAZON, is devoted to public policy change to support all hungry people, regardless of racial, religious, or other dividing lines humans like to draw among ourselves.
MAZON reports that since March, 2020, America’s already-terrible hunger crisis has doubled, going from around 40 million people to 80 million people. The pandemic and resulting unemployment only served to add extra stresses onto an already stressed population, and it will only get worse unless we work together to solve this problem.
If you want to follow Steve Goode’s Great American Deli Schlep journey, be sure to check out his MAZON page. Also, if you want to pitch in to help fight hunger across America in support of GADS, you can do so here. We wish Steve Goode plenty of luck, good roads, and good travels on his journey.