Instacart Serves supports local families in need this holiday season

Toronto employees volunteering at the Daily Bread Food Bank.

Last week, we partnered with our corporate giving partner Feeding America for our second annual Week of Service. During the week of November 11, employees mobilized to volunteer in food banks across 25+ cities in North America — logging over 1,500 total hours volunteered — to help support communities.

Atlanta Instacart employees volunteering at Atlanta Community Food Bank.

From the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank to the Daily Food Bank in Toronto, employees sorted 210,091 pounds of food, generated 58,154 meals, and packed 27,073 pounds of produce, mixed foods, and dairy products. Volunteers also assembled 3,268 meal kits and mobile food boxes as well as packed 1,080 pounds of pet food. We were also proud to make a donation of 400,000 meals to Feeding America to help uplift our neighbors facing hunger.

Volunteers packing fruit during their volunteer shift.

Instacart employees volunteering at the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

Following the Week of Service, we invited Rowena Norman, Director of New Corporate Partnerships for Feeding America, for a conversation around the state of food insecurity in North America as part of our guest speaker series A Penne For Your Thoughts. Rowena talked about how food insecurity affects more than 37 million or 1 in 9 Americans, according to the USDA’s 2019 Household Food Insecurity in the United States report, and disproportionately impacts diverse communities including 11 million children who face hunger. Additionally, Rowena shared how companies like ours can work together to support our communities facing hunger such as lending your skills and expertise for innovation. If you would like to join the fight to end hunger, you may also make a donation to Feeding America.

Feeding America’s Rowena Norman visits Instacart HQ for a conversation around the state of food insecurity.

In addition to Week of Service, last month our Instacart Serves program also provided support to 200,000 families impacted by the Kincade Fires in Sonoma County, just north of San Francisco. The efforts included grocery and supply donations to local evacuation centers in the Bay Area who were in need of various items including packaged snacks, water, juice, sandwich supplies, hand sanitizer, earplugs, and pet food and supplies as many centers were housing animals. A special thank you to the amazing Instacart shoppers who picked and delivered items to the evacuation centers.

Instacart employees wrapping up their volunteer shift at the food bank during Week of Service.