How World Central Kitchen benefits from 100-mile local bike ride
Rev. Bill Osborne challenges himself to bike 100 miles for World Central Kitchen, which he said is ‘tremendously worthy of donations.’
News Story by Kali Nelson | FāVS News
About 16 weeks ago, Phillip Osborne and his father the Rev. Bill Osborne started training for the Spokane Lilac Century Bike Ride.
Bill Osborne retired as pastor of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Spokane in 2023.
He said at first he was on the fence about participating in the 100 mile race. The race is scheduled for 7 a.m. May 19 in Mead. The registration fee is given to the Spokane Aurora Northwest Rotary Club and is used for programs such as holiday food baskets, reading programs, college scholarships, cleft palate repair clinics and other needs.
Bill Osborne said once he had formally decided to participate, he decided to use it as a personal fundraiser for World Central Kitchen. He set up the fundraiser at donate.wck.org/fundraiser/5443868 and had raised about $650 as of May 12. His goal is to raise $5,000.
Inspiration
The idea to make it a fundraiser, Osborne said, came from another one of his sons. He said it was motivating to have another goal in mind when training. He had heard about World Central Kitchen through the news, first their work in Ukraine and more recently in Gaza. In March, seven of its staff were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
“WCK has been providing meals in response to humanitarian crises in Gaza, Ukraine, and Haiti. When disaster strikes, WCK’s Relief Team mobilizes to the front lines to start cooking and providing meals to people in need. By partnering with organizations on the ground and activating a network of local restaurants, food trucks, or emergency kitchens, WCK serves comforting meals to survivors of disasters quickly and effectively,” Bill Osborne wrote on his fundraising page.
He said so far the response he’s seen to his fundraiser has been positive.
“World Central Kitchen is tremendously worthy of donations because of what they’re doing,” Bill Osborne said.
World Central Kitchen is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2010 to provide food relief around the world.
“They’re doing better at what governments don’t do well, which is engaging the community,” Bill Osborne said.
According to World Central Kitchen, community kitchens have been established by local Palestinians. Meals are also served to displaced people in Lebanon and Israel.
“With the fundraiser it will spur me onto completing the whole thing,” he said.
Training
While Bill Osborne said he doesn’t think he’ll be very fast at the race, he has bought a racing bike and can get up to 13 miles an hour. His longest ride so far has been about 80 miles.
To train for the race, the father and son do separate workouts and long distance rides. Phillip Osborne said they get together sometimes and compare how the training was going over the last few weeks.
“It’ll be nice to have something to share with him,” Phillip Osborne said.
