SPRINGFIELD – Bike use recently got a boost when the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike PV) awarded grants to two local non-profits to help support their missions.

H. Alex Weck, president, MassBike PV, named Springfield’s Gardening in the Community and the community advocacy group WalkBikeSpringfield as this years recipients. Each organization will receive up to $500 to support their bicycle-related outreach this year.

Ibrahim Ali, co-director, Gardening in the Community (GTC), said his organization would use the grant, which he believed to be $500, to continue the use of bicycles to deliver weekly farm shares to clients from its Hancock and Walnut Street farms.

“We’ll be using the funds to insure we have the components necessary to maintain the bikes we have in good order, and possibly use a small amount to buy a new bike,” Ali said.

He explained the youth that work for GTC go out in teams to deliver produce to farm share clients who live and work within a half-mile of the gardens. He said the organization currently has one bike trailer and seven bicycles  – three of which will be returning this season after repairs – and that GTC hopes to purchase one more bicycle to bring their delivery fleet up to eight. According to Ali, GTC began its urban farming activities in with the Central Street Community Garden in 2002, and began using bicycles to deliver its produce from its Hancock Street Farm in 2009.

Weck said this year’s second grant recipient, WalkBike Springfield, is “a community group working actively to promote citizen involvement in the improvement of bicycling for all citizens.”

WalkBike spokesperson Deborah Huber said the organization would use their grant, which she estimated to be somewhere between $150 and  $500, to boost awareness of their Facebook page, Better Biking and Walking for Springfield,  MA.,  at www.facebook.com/WalkBikeSpringfield.

“We use this page to provide information on what's happening in Massachusetts and especially the greater Springfield area to improve walking and biking and to educate everyone on the changes coming for the area … things like Complete Streets projects, sidewalk improvements, multi-use trail projects,” Huber said. “With little to no promotion our page currently has 236 followers (likes), we hope to significantly increase people we reach by boosting posts regularly over the next 12 months.

“Our goal,” she continued, “Is to broaden our reach so that more people of all economic and social backgrounds will be encouraged to get out on foot and by bike.”

The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition was founded in 1977 and for the past 40 years, has been working to promote bicycling in Massachusetts. The Pioneer Valley chapter was founded in the 1990s and focuses specifically on promoting bicycle use – ensuring that it is a safe, fun and easy activity for all – in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties. For more information on MassBike PV, visit www.massbikepv.org.