6.5 Million Meals Delivered Through Project DASH During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Our Plans to Expand the Program in 2021
The past year has brought extraordinary challenges, including an increase in food insecurity. As a result of COVID-19 and shelter-in-place orders, we have seen a huge need for provisions of food and supplies to seniors, the immunocompromised, and families facing food insecurity or transportation barriers.
Through Project DASH and with the help of our Dasher community, we are grateful to be able to empower community organizations — such as food banks, food pantries, schools, and senior centers — to increase access in their communities. Project DASH leverages the DoorDash Drive platform to enable government and nonprofit partners with last-mile delivery capabilities.
Since launching Project DASH three years ago, in addition to surplus food, food pantry boxes, and prepared meals, Dashers have delivered school supplies, mental health kits, home essentials, holiday items, and more. We’re eager to double down on this rewarding initiative and welcome the opportunity to partner with organizations across the country.
We aim to power 1 million deliveries in 2021 through Project DASH, as part of our two-year, 2 million delivery goal. We are building long-term solutions that offer logistics services to all government and nonprofit partners in all communities for the distribution of a variety of needs. We believe that last-mile delivery has the potential to transform the way that social services are provided and we are inspired by how our partners leverage it as a tool to create access in their communities. In turn, we will continue evolving our approach to collaborating with nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, and government agencies to ensure that our platform is able to address the most challenging logistics problems faced by our communities.
We invite organizations who are interested in working with us this year to expand their existing delivery efforts or brainstorm how delivery could enhance their programs to contact the Project DASH team.
As we continue to expand the reach of Project DASH, we are proud to share that we worked with our social impact partners and our community of Dashers to connect an estimated 6.5 million meals to food insecure and vulnerable populations in 2020.
In the last 60 days alone, Project DASH has been active in 37 states supporting our local communities, and since the launch of the program, Project DASH has completed more than 450,000 deliveries of meals, groceries, and supplies to over 800 cities across the United States and Canada. This work has been made possible by partnerships with community leaders throughout the country, collaboration at a national scale through partners like United Way Worldwide, and even more, through the commitment and support of Dashers in the communities where we operate.
Demetrius Brown, a Florida Dasher who has done over 1200 deliveries from food pantries on behalf of United Way of the Big Bend said, “It’s important we look out for each other and I’m proud to play a role in connecting my community with the things they need. Being able to deliver on my own time while helping local nonprofits with their work makes me feel like I’m having a positive impact in the city where I live. I’m looking forward to even more Project DASH deliveries this year.”
“United Way of New York City’s participation in the Ride United Last Mile Delivery Initiative, made possible by Project DASH, has helped our emergency food partners complete over 7,500 deliveries to New Yorkers unable to leave their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This investment provided our ReadNYC families in the South Bronx with over 4,000 deliveries of nutrient-dense food packages. As the pandemic continues to impact communities, food insecurity is rising across New York City so we are extremely grateful for the continued partnership with DoorDash in supporting NYC’s emergency food network to reach more New Yorkers in need.” — Jade Lopez, UWNYC’s Program Manager, Nutrition Programs
We are inspired by our Project DASH partners for building innovative solutions to challenges that our communities are facing, and looking forward to many new partnerships in the years to come.
“Prior to COVID-19 the Food Bank was running a small delivery program to a few hundred home-bound seniors. Thanks to the support of corporate partners like DoorDash we’ve been able to scale up and serve more than 8,000 seniors who’ve needed to shelter in place during the pandemic. DoorDash joined us within days of the first shelter-in-place order and has remained steadfast in the fight ever since. A pleasure to work with.” – Andy Burns, Director of Participant Engagement, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank
Mayor Sam Liccardo, City of San Jose said, “As we distribute millions of meals weekly to pandemic-stricken families in San Jose families, the most challenging part of the solution lies in the “last mile” of delivery. Local nonprofits have relied on Project DASH to overcome that challenge, and I’m grateful for DoorDash’s innovative initiative connecting aid to our neighbors in need.”
6.5 Million Meals Delivered Through Project DASH During COVID-19 Pandemic and Our Plans to Expand… was originally published in DoorDash on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.