Just before 10:30am on a glorious Saturday morning, we arrive on Broadwater Farm Estate to meet workers from The Felix Project, who pull up in a van. The Felix Project collects food from supermarkets and suppliers that cannot be sold and distributes it across the capital, ensuring it reaches those who need it most. 

We’ve been working on the estate since last summer. Normally the food we collect would be offered out alongside drop-in bike sessions with young people as part of our youth-led initiative, Your Bike Project. Since lockdown began, we’ve suspended all of our usual group activities. However, we’re continuing to coordinate the weekly food deliveries on Broadwater Farm to support efforts to help the most vulnerable. 

The food arrives in crates. This week, offerings include fresh fruit, yoghurt, healthy ready meals, bread and spring onions. We lay out the crates two metres apart, pulling the freshest produce into the shade, so that people can browse at a safe distance and collect what they want.

Despite the beautiful weather, the estate is quiet. Over the course of the morning, we meet a steady stream of estate residents and staff. Some are passerbys; others have collected food on previous Saturdays and have come especially. People take food for themselves and also their friends and neighbours. They are polite and kind to us and each other, observing social distancing. Through our chats, we deepen our knowledge of the estate; who might need help and who wants to offer it.

Security staff come in clusters, cheerful and friendly. We find out that they’re not local; one woman, who took food for herself and her neighbour, travels in from Barking. 

We speak at length with one of the estate’s street cleaners who’s been working on Broadwater Farm for 17 years. Originally from Lancashire, we find out that he’s deeply committed to the people who live on the estate. He shares his experience of the lockdown, explaining he knows some of the most vulnerable residents. He hopes that some positives will come out of the situation and offers to help in any way he can. 

We also meet a resident, full of warm energy, who we discover is part of the Broadwater Farm fabric. She’s a part-time carer and volunteers for the church of reconciliation and a migrant support charity. She expresses an interest in helping us in future weeks. I have time, she tells us with a big smile.

Eventually, the food is almost all collected and we pack up. We’ll be back next Saturday and the ones after that where we hope to work with residents and staff to reach those who most need help.

Find out what we’re up to during lockdown and support our Coronavirus Appeal.

While we’ve paused our regular sessions, we’re working hard to safely provide bikes to families, neighbours and key workers during the coronavirus lockdown.

Now more than ever, cycling is an important way to deliver food and essentials to neighbours, as well as helping us feel mentally and physically better with much-needed exercise. 

Stefan, session leader and bike mechanic, has been out and about on one of the Wheely Tots cargo bikes today, helping people to keep moving on two wheels.

First stop, he delivered two balance bikes to Paulsha’s home. Paulsha’s borrowed the bikes from our kit library for her twin daughters to ride around on over the lockdown period. 

On Broadwater Farm Estate, we loaned two bikes to a Your Bike Project participant and his father. The participant has been regularly attending our Saturday afternoon sessions for young people, led by Stefan, since they started in February. During that time he’s brought his friends along to the project, fixed bikes and helped out where he can.  Though we’ve had to pause Your Bike Project sessions for now, we have an online offer ready to go.

Gloria, a Wheely Tots Trustee and manager of the awesome Redmond Community Centre in Woodberry Down, let us know she had a puncture. Stefan cycled over and helped her to fix it. She’s chuffed that she can keep exercising on her bike – and has also learnt a new skill. 

During the first week of the lockdown, we delivered five balance bikes to people’s homes, coordinated two large food deliveries from the Felix Project to residents in Broadwater Farm Estate, completed four doorstep bike repairs (including three for key workers) and provided remote guidance and advice to eleven families.  

Read more about our response to COVID-19 and our adapted offer. 

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Late last night I received a “no caller ID” calling so I ignored it, bound to be some sales type call….

“No Caller ID” called again….so I thought these people are persistent and ignored it again

Third Time – Answered the call.  It was the Police saying they had found our bike!!!!!

Totally amazed, in shock (in a good way this time) and when we get it back we can start to use the trailer along with the cargo bikes to do our bit to help with delivering food  and other basic necessities to people who need them

Huge thanks go out to everyone who circulated the stolen bike images, and to all those who helped in other ways!

We’re very sad to share that Wheely Tots’ electric bike, a Cube Cross Pro, was stolen on Monday 16th March on Lordship Rec. We use this bike to transport a trailer of cycles around to sessions for families and  Your Bike Project, our youth-led cycling initiative based in Tottenham. Pictures of the bike are here. 

Although we’re gutted, we’re also heartened by all the empathy and help that David received from strangers and passerbys immediately after the theft on his search for the bag and information. We’ve also received loads of support from people we’ve shared the news with. This feels symptomatic of all the community action that’s taking place right now, proving just how much we can be there for each other.

David was cycling out of Lordship Rec, near the Walpole Road entrance, when two young people blocked his way and asked him for the bike. On the bike was a blue pannier, full of equipment, and attached to it was a hitch that secures the bike to our trailer. 

“I went back to the BMX track, where I saw some of the young people who attend Your Bike Project sessions on Saturdays,” explains David. “I told them what had just happened and asked them to take my blue bag to the community centre or the hub if they found it.” 

“They were more keen to tell me about what a great session they’d had last Saturday, which was nice to hear,” he adds.  

After fetching a spare bike from the Croydon Block in Broadwater Farm Estate – the venue for Your Bike Project Saturday sessions – David explained what had happened to a stranger on a bike, who agreed to accompany him on a recce around the park.

After the cyclist left, David asked a couple of other passerbys if they’d seen his bag. He then spotted something blue on the other side of the Model Traffic Area and cycled towards it.

“Amazingly it was the bag!” says David. “The bike tools were still in it. All my keys – all the keys for everything to do with Your Bike Project and Wheely Tots – were in there. The one thing I’d lost were my gloves, which out of all things considered, is pretty good.

“I passed another guy after I picked up my bag. He said, ‘oh is that yours?’ It was a glove!” 

On his way home David passed Park View School, where he spoke to Mr Chambers, a teacher, who gave David the number of the Deputy Head. “I figured out, if someone might know someone who might know someone who knows where that bike is and maybe we could at least get that hitch back for the trailer, which would be useful.” 

We’re really keen to get the bike back as it’s essential for our work as a charity. If anyone has any information or would like to offer support, please let us know on [email protected]. Thank you.

Wheely Tots has been shortlisted in the Hoop Awards 2020!

This means we have been chosen as one of the top family activities in the London area.

Next, the competition opens up to the public vote. The winner will be the organisation with the most votes.

The link to vote is here: https://hoop.co.uk/2020-hoop-awards/london/ 

We are nominated in the ‘Best for Getting Active’ category. You can vote in other categories too but you can just scroll through to ours and vote for us.

We’d be really grateful if you could vote for us and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

The voting closes on 23 March and the winners are announced on 30 March.

We’ve tweeted about it here, and posted on Facebook. Please also like and share to help us spread the word far and wide.

What are the Hoop Awards?

The Hoop Awards are an annual celebration of the activity organisers who go above and beyond to entertain, educate and inspire children nationwide. Shortlists are compiled for each category based on popularity in the Hoop app (that’s views, saves, shares, and ratings), and then it’s down a public vote.

You can find out about Hoop here.