The Chiditarod Foundation

The Chicago Urban Shopping Cart Race, affectionately known as the CHIditarod, is an annual race through the Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village Chicago neighborhoods, which is now in its 11th year. The date of the event was chosen to coincide with the kickoff of the Alaskan Iditarod® (whom we are not affiliated with in any way).

There are some basic similarities between the races, but there is plenty more whimsy involved in this urban setting. Instead of sleds, we use shopping carts. Instead of dogs, we have teams of five humans: four pullers and one musher, all in costumes they have designed for themselves and their cart. Also, each team is required to start with their cart full of food for donation. The event draws together 1,100+ people, both participants and spectators, and has collected over 122,000 pounds of food and more than $138,000 in direct donations since its 2006 inception. CHIditarod is a one-of-a-kind event dedicated to self-expression — part charity food drive, part beauty pageant, part bar crawl, all costumed shopping cart race. An epic spectacle like no other.

Last year, in our tenth year, we raised over $38,000, gave away $25,000 in micro-grants, and raised over 22,700 lbs of food for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Help us make Chiditarod XI even better! Every donation helps fight hunger in Chicago.