Mark Campbell, left, Melanie Nelson and dog Dizzy all of Bend, race from the starting line outside Goodlife Brewing Co. on their tandem bike while participating in the Cranksgiving event Sunday. The group took the top team honors at the event.

A swarm of cyclists spread out around west Bend Sunday, collecting food and sundries for a Bend homeless shelter.

Organizers of the Cranksgiving event gave participants maps and grocery lists before the scavenger hunt began at Goodlife Brewing Co. Each cyclist, or team of cyclists, then chose what route they thought would be fastest.

Daniel Brewster, 31, of Bend, finished first in the solo male category, hitting all the stops and gathering all the goods in about 30 minutes. He said he used a simple strategy.

“No left turns, just like UPS,” said Brewster, owner of Cascade Couriers, a Bend bicycle delivery company.

Cranksgiving is a combination of a bike ride, food drive and scavenger hunt. The original Cranksgiving was in 1999 in New York City, where it has been held every year since. There are now about 30 events across the country and in Canada. One is planned for Nov. 23 in Portland.

The first Bend Cranksgiving was last year, and Jim Elliott, the event’s organizer, said he wants to make it an annual event. Elliott participated in a Cranksgiving event in Iowa and brought it to Bend. The timing of Cranksgiving helps homeless shelters stock up for the coming holidays.

While the Sunday forecast called for a chilly morning, Elliott said it didn’t stop people from showing up. And those who did were treated with sunshine and relatively warm weather.

“People will come out for a good cause in Bend no matter what the weather,” Elliott said.

In all, there were 76 participants, competing as 16 families, five teams, eight individual men and three individual women, according to Elliott. Along with hundreds of pounds of food, the event brought in $1,000 worth of donations and raffle proceeds.

Food and other items collected during the Bend event went to the Bethlehem Inn, a local homeless shelter that feeds about 75 people per day. The food ride differed from other food drives in that the homeless shelter was able to give a specific list of what to fill its pantry with, said Gwenn Wysling, the executive director at the Bethlehem Inn.

“We know what we need,” she said.

The haul included cans of tuna, 4-pound bags of sugar, batteries and toilet paper. The scavenger hunt had stops at four grocery stores, a hardware store and three bicycle shops, all in west Bend. Buying the list of goods cost about $30.

Chris Horner, a pro cyclist from Bend and winner of the Spanish Vuelta in September, was at Cranksgiving but didn’t compete. He said he was there to support the event, mingling with participants and signing autographs. Used to riding against the clock, Horner said the scavenger hunt riders did well.

“It is pretty impressive how fast they got around town,” he said.

The cyclists who finished the fastest earned trophies fashioned out of bicycle cranks. There were also raffle prizes galore, including a bike from Bend Velo.

While used to the cycling portion of the scavenger hunt, Melanie Nelson, 36, of Bend, said the challenge was finding some of the items on the list in the shops.

“At the grocery stores, you actually had to shop,” she said.

Nelson and her boyfriend, Mark Campbell, 46, of Bend, took the top team honors. They rode a 1973 Schwinn Twinn and pulled a trailer that held their dog, Dizzy, a 6-year-old chihuahua.

Many of the teams Sunday were composed of families, with some kids riding their own bikes. Too young to ride yet, Teo Bergston, 2, of Bend, rode in a trailer pulled by his dad, Erik Bergston, 41, of Bend. Teo’s mom, Darlene Becker, 39, of Bend, rode a bike alongside.

The scavenger hunt was a “blast” and went much faster than Becker expected.

“I thought we were going to do it all day,” Becker said.