We have a responsibility at Grubhub to make a real difference by supporting initiatives and organizations that are closely tied to our longstanding efforts to connect diners and restaurants. In 2019, nearly 14 million households in the U.S. were food insecure, meaning they lacked the resources to feed their family members. That number is likely much higher today given the effect of COVID-19 wiping out millions of jobs which has resulted in more than 19 million people suddenly finding themselves without work and a secure income.

We aren’t alone in our efforts, as we have the support of the generous 28 million diners who, through our Donate the Change program, can opt-in to round up their total to the nearest dollar with the difference being donated to a charitable cause or public interest organization.

• When we first launched Donate the Change in 2018, we teamed up with No Kid Hungry, a national campaign, to help end childhood hunger and have a transformative impact on the lives of millions of kids who struggle with hunger. Since then, we’ve raised more than $16 million dollars for No Kid Hungry through diner donations and Grubhub’s match, which is enough to provide up to 160 million meals to children in need across the country.*

• In March when COVID-19 started to impact people across the country, we knew we had to act. That’s why we established the Grubhub Community Relief Fund, a donor-advised fund, to support local and national charitable organizations that provide relief for those who have been impacted by COVID-19, including restaurants, delivery partners, and those in need. Since March, we’ve raised $12 million dollars to fund the Grubhub Community Relief Fund and donated nearly 850,000 meals and counting to organizations dedicated to feeding those in need.

From the East Coast to the West and dozens of cities in between, our Grubhub Community Relief Fund efforts have reached communities across the country through the work of these organizations:

MEANS Database and Rescuing Leftover Cuisine donate food from independent restaurants to people in need in their local neighborhoods. Through MEANS Database, Grubhub’s support is used to purchase leftover food from restaurants in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Providence, Las Vegas, Oakland, Denver and San Francisco to provide to local nonprofits, including Open Door Missionary Church, World Harvest Food Bank, Common Pantry and Providence Rescue Mission.

Our support to Rescuing Leftover Cuisine is used to purchase meals from Black-owned restaurants and has allowed the organization to expand its “sponsor a meal” service to Boston. These meals are going directly to nonprofits including the New York City Housing Authority, Neighborhood Coalition Shelter, St. Ambrose Family Shelter, Queens Together, Boston Public School families, Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, Cambridge Family & Children’s Service and Finex House. To support its Boston expansion and honor Hunger Action Month in September, Grubhub and RLC spent a Saturday delivering locally made meals to those in need in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. Representatives from St. Ambrose Family Shelter, Boston Public Schools, Neighborhood Charter School and State Rep. Liz Miranda were there and helped deliver the food to recipients.

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“As our team at the St. Ambrose Family Shelter adjusted to working through the pandemic, we saw an immediate and exponential increase in need for food, and we began researching ways we could help the communities find additional resources. With the help of Grubhub and Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, we were able to quickly increase our ability to assist more families and individuals, and we have been distributing meals to people daily for the last six months, at times as many as 100 meals per day. We don’t see the need for food assistance decreasing anytime soon, so we are very grateful to Rescuing Leftover Cuisine and Grubhub for their commitment to helping people in need and helping me and my team remain a stable and reliable presence for our communities in these increasingly difficult times.” – Rick Freitas, Director, St. Ambrose Family Shelter

As the birthplace of Seamless, New York is near and dear to our hearts and we’ve partnered with three local organizations whose efforts are specifically focused on feeding vulnerable populations and frontline workers: World Central Kitchen, the Food Bank of New York City and Tacombi Community Kitchen.

World Central Kitchen has activated a network of restaurants and foodservice providers to safely produce individually packaged fresh meals that are delivered to the elderly, schoolchildren, and vulnerable communities across the United States. In Brooklyn, Grubhub’s support allowed World Central Kitchen to pay restaurants for these meals and handled delivery logistics. Additionally, we partnered with Word Central Kitchen for a virtual Sound Bites series in August that featured Lupe Fiasco and UMI. Fans were encouraged to leave a comment sharing their favorite delivery order in the YouTube livestream chat during the performance, and we donated $100,000 ($1 for every comment) to World Central Kitchen to help them support Black-owned restaurants and communities in need.

Providing emergency meals to New Yorkers impacted by the economic downturn and COVID pandemic, the Food Bank of New York City supports more than one million New Yorkers every year through its network of more than 1,000 soup kitchens and food pantries. Our support is used to purchase food to be distributed across the five boroughs. In September, Seamless and the Food Bank partnered to host five pop up food distribution centers at iconic locations in each borough throughout the month of September in support of Hunger Action Month: The Barclays Center, Yankee Stadium, Lincoln Center, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden and The New York Hall of Science. More than 100,000 meals were distributed to nearly 11,500 New Yorkers in need.

“More New Yorkers are facing hunger than ever before as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With food lines wrapping around city blocks, shining a light on rising food insecurity in NYC was especially important for Food Bank during Hunger Action Month. With so much in the balance for our NYC neighbors, we are so grateful for Seamless’ support in helping us provide meals to everyday New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet.” – Janis Robinson, Vice President of Institutional Giving and Partnerships at Food Bank For New York City

Pivoting from its original mission of supporting community education initiatives in Mexico, The Tacombi Foundation launched the Tacombi Community Kitchen (TCK) to redirect its efforts to provide healthy Mexican meals to New York families most in need in Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Our support funded a portion of the distribution of these meals to organizations, including Mercy Center, MASA, Voces Latinas, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Mixteca Organization and LSA.

We’re also providing support to the Boys and Girls Club of America to help reopen their doors across the country. Many members of our community have been able to continue working throughout the pandemic, including restaurant workers and drivers which has brought support to many of us. During this time, many daycares and schools have been closed or limited in the services they are able to provide. The Boys and Girls Clubs across the country provide a safe environment for parents to bring their children while they are working on the frontlines. We have been able to support The Boys and Girls Club of America in more than 35 cities, including: Chicago, Harlem, Philadelphia, Providence, Worcester, Detroit, Sacramento and more. A portion of our support to these clubs reopened the Chicago, Southeast Louisiana, Harlem, Philadelphia and Providence feeding and pantry programs and continues to help cover the cost of meals for the children at these local clubs. With these feeding programs, parents don’t have to worry about whether or not their child will have a meal that day.

We’re committed to giving support and resources to help combat hunger and are grateful we can partner with local restaurants and organizations that have the same dedication and mission. We look forward to continuing our good work in communities across the country.

_{*$1 can provide up to 10 meals. Meal equivalency varies during COVID-19 relief. Learn more at NoKidHungry.org/OneDollar.}