Food and Accommodations

Accommodations

We will be staying in many different places with overnights in campgrounds, as guests in private homes, in motels or hotels, in college dorms, and on floors of churches and school gyms.

The Cross-USA Ride is a moving circus, and to maintain a sense of order, we all will need to be mindful of the community as a whole.

We will have a rotation of riders assisting the crew for specific tasks, but everyone should feel responsible to help pack, unpack, set up, and clean up each overnight location. We will not start dinner until the whole community is set up and will not depart until everything is cleaned up.

Campgrounds

We will have about 30 outdoor camping nights throughout the full 10-week trip. Many campgrounds are small RV and camping sites, which have large grassy areas for our group, with hot showers and some electricity. A few overnights will be in state parks, where we will be camping in wooded areas. We will be sleeping in tents and eating as a community. Hazon will provide a few multi-person tents, but you are welcome to bring a small one- or two-person tent if you would like private quarters. We recommend personal tents for those joining for 5-10 weeks. Each person is responsible for setting up their own tents, but we hope that everyone will pitch in to help one another set up the campsite each night.

Synagogues, Churches, and School Gyms

About 15 nights will be spent “indoor camping,” when we will take our sleeping bags and mattress pads, and sleep in a synagogue, church, or school. At times, when there are no showers in the facility, we have arranged access to a nearby gym to use their showers.

We wish to be gracious guests, and will need to fully clean up the facility before we depart each morning.

Home Hospitality

At times, people in local communities have been gracious enough to house us. In some cases, we will be eating dinner with our host families and in nearly all cases, breakfast as well. These are mostly on Shabbat, when we will have a few nights not spent as a group. We will cycle into a central location where our hosts will meet us as we divide up for the night.

Motels, Hostels, and College Dorms

It is our goal to have a true bed for each Shabbat. At times this will be at home hospitality, but otherwise we are booking motels, hostels, or college dorms that are near to synagogues or our host communities. This will enable us to take advantage of Shabbat to rest our bodies.

Food

Whether you are joining us for 7 days or 70, we will be eating a lot of meals together. While our staff will be tasked with much of the food purchasing and cooking, we will be creating a food rotation so that different riders will assist in food preparation or clean up each day.

We will have a set of supplies that will be used to prepare most of our meals on the road. This will include setting up a full mobile kitchen at camp sites, but also bringing some of our utensils into the kitchens of some of our overnight hosts, such as high schools and churches.

Hazon Food Values

Food values always play an important role at Hazon and it will be our challenge to balance these values against the practicalities of cooking on the road. We strive to have food that upholds the following values:

  • Cost-effective
  • Ethical
  • Fair Trade
  • Healthy
  • Kosher
  • Low carbon
  • Low on the food chain
  • Sustainably produced

The food provided by the Ride will be kosher. We will not have a mashgiach, kosher supervisor, on site, but we will ensure that our crew and riders will be versed in our internal policies regarding kosher food. At times, we may be joining other communities for meals that may have varied kashrut practices. However, when needed, we will be able to augment their meals with food we prepare.

Please note that at any time you are welcome to purchase your own food in town, whether on the road for a snack or for dinner if feasible.

Breakfast

Breakfast will be at our overnight accommodation each morning. We will have various options including oatmeal, cold cereals, yogurts, hardboiled eggs, and fruit.

Snacks

We will have snacks always available, both on and off the road. Since we may only have one or two official rest stops a day, we expect riders to be carrying enough snacks for the day with them. We will have a selection of energy bars, potato chips, nuts, and other items available, but you may want to bring your own preferred brand to use at times. We also will have energy drinks available.

Lunch

We will be eating lunch on the road each riding day. On some days we may recommend making sandwiches in the morning and carrying them with you, or we may be able to set up a lunch stop in the middle of the day. We will provide a variety of options, including peanut butter, jellies, nutella, hummus, and tuna salad. We will also have leftovers from dinners that may be able to be taken on the road for lunch.

Dinner

Dinner will be a group effort each night, led by our crew. We will be offering a rotating menu of options that are hearty and nutritious. At times we will serve meat for dinner (which will be ethically sourced), but we will always have a vegetarian option. We plan to keep a pantry of food staples so that you will always be able to find something to keep your body ready for the next day’s ride. Menu options will include burrito bars, vegetarian chili, BBQs, and pasta casseroles.

When we are being hosted by Jewish communities, they will often provide a meal or two for us, especially over Shabbat. Even when we are on our own however, we will strive to make our Shabbat meals extra special to set them apart from the food we eat during the rest of the week.