News Tag: Partnerships

CHICAGO, March 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — In recognition of Women’s History Month, Grubhub is strengthening and expanding its commitment to grow the number of women-led restaurants, especially those impacted by COVID. It was four years ago with the creation of RestaurantHER that Grubhub first started using its technology platform to drive change and respond to the issues facing women in the restaurant industry. The company pledged to champion and support women-led restaurants, raise awareness about inequality in the industry and help improve things for the better.

As Grubhub kicks off its fourth year of RestaurantHER, we’re working with World Central Kitchen (WCK) and the Women Business Collaborative (WBC) to support and help amplify our ongoing efforts for women in the culinary industry.

RestaurantHER comes this year as women have lost the most jobs during the pandemic. In January 2021, women were still down 5.4 million jobs, which makes up 55 percent of total jobs lost. The restaurant industry was among those most impacted by COVID, and a majority of the workforce are women. Before COVID, female restaurant workers (especially owners and chefs) struggled to grow due to lack of sponsorship, funding and even workplace harassment. As a result, there are fewer women at the leadership level in restaurants. And now those numbers are dwindling even further.

“We are hopeful that across the country, RestaurantHER will spark a movement of support for women-owned and operated restaurants,” said Devry Boughner Vorwerk, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Grubhub. “Women restaurateurs are highly capable business leaders in the industry, and they often face barriers that their male counterparts do not. This month, and every month, at Grubhub, we want to shine a light on women-led restaurants and all the benefits these women bring to their communities through their dedication, their creativity and their cuisine.”

Since Grubhub began the RestaurantHER initiative in 2018, we’ve seen talented and aspiring chefs who have been able to succeed in part because of the resources and programs of RestaurantHER. Our incredible partners and diners have played a significant role in helping Grubhub work toward change. We worked with organizations such as the James Beard Foundation and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs to provide grants and tools for female chefs and culinary leaders to navigate and address the specific challenges they face in the industry. Additionally, Grubhub created a RestaurantHER map where diners can find a women-led restaurant near them.

To continue our efforts, Grubhub is supporting World Central Kitchen‘s Restaurants for the People program and specifically restaurants that are women-owned and operated. Grubhub will support these efforts through the Donate the Change program during Women’s History Month, where diners are invited to join us in helping these women. Grubhub’s Donate the Change feature allows diners who opt-in to round up their change on every order. All proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen to provide nourishing meals to help vulnerable communities impacted by the pandemic. Last year, Grubhub diners across the country generously donated a total of $21 million to support various organizations and communities in need through Donate the Change.

“We are grateful for Grubhub’s support and belief in our mission, and recognition that restaurants are a key part of the solution to the ongoing health, economic, and humanitarian crises. Their support will specifically help women-owned and operated restaurants that are a part of our Restaurants for the People program, which pays restaurants directly to help keep their business afloat while also providing tens of thousands of meals to people in need,” said Erin Gore, Vice President of Development at World Central Kitchen.

Grubhub is also excited to kick off a partnership with the Women Business Collaborative, an alliance of more than 44 women business organizations and thousands of individuals who are committed to gender equality in the workplace. Together, we’ll raise awareness and encourage Americans to support local women-owned restaurants throughout the month of March and throughout the year. We’ll also form an advisory board in 2021 composed of female restaurant owners to discuss issues in the industry and ways Grubhub and others can help.

“The time is now for all of us to commit to order from women-owned restaurants and tell the stories of our support in every community across this nation. We are devoted to this effort with RestaurantHER and Grubhub,” added Edie Fraser, CEO of Women Business Collaborative.

World Central Kitchen will also be Grubhub’s donation partner for our popular virtual concert series Sound Bites, which will feature performances by Megan Thee Stallion, Noah Cyrus and King Princess. Fans tuning in will be encouraged to scan customized QR codes that will pop up throughout the show to receive special discounts and Perks, along with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from King Princess. For every QR code scanned at one point during the live stream, Grubhub will donate $1 (up to $100,000) to World Central Kitchen. The free Sound Bites concert will take place on Friday, March 26 at 7 p.m. ET on the Grubhub YouTube channel.

Grubhub’s commitment to support women in the restaurant industry will continue as long as it takes to see equality, and we hope our community of diners will join us by supporting female chefs and owners, and their delicious culinary creations, year-round. Visit the Grubhub app, Grubhub.com or RestaurantHER.com to find a women-led restaurant near you.

About Grubhub
Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) is a leading online and mobile food-ordering and delivery marketplace with the largest and most comprehensive network of restaurant partners, as well as over 31 million active diners. Dedicated to connecting diners with the food they love from their favorite local restaurants, Grubhub elevates food ordering through innovative restaurant technology, easy-to-use platforms and an improved delivery experience. Grubhub features over 300,000 restaurants and is proud to partner with over 265,000 of these restaurants in over 4,000 U.S. cities. The Grubhub portfolio of brands includes Grubhub, Seamless, LevelUp, AllMenus and MenuPages.

Since our founding in 2004, we’ve encouraged authenticity, celebrated our differences and believed that diversity strengthens our success. More than 30 million people and hundreds of thousands of restaurant owners, from all different backgrounds, rely on Grubhub. We know that we must bring people with different backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and skills around the table to better understand and support the communities we serve.

Over the last year, we’ve looked critically at our company makeup, initiatives, processes and partnerships to identify areas for improvement. We view Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as an ongoing effort with no “end date,” but we’re proud of the progress we’ve made thus far, including removing language with bias from our job postings, diversifying hiring and interview panels, creating our Voices Council and GrubConnect groups, and — most recently — partnering with Path Forward to offer a returnship program to individuals who are looking to return to the workforce in technical roles after taking time spent as a caregiver.

“We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace, and Path Forward provides Grubhub with a valuable avenue to source from a wider and more diverse population of talented professionals who have historically faced barriers to returning to the workforce,” said Kelley Berlin, Grubhub’s chief people officer. “It can be challenging for caregivers to find equitable employment opportunities after taking time caring for their family, and returnships are one way to provide an encouraging developmental path.”

Grubhub’s Reconnect Returnship Program is a 16-week paid returnship for experienced professionals returning to the workforce after spending time caring for their families. The program is open to individuals who have at least five years of professional experience and have been out of the paid workforce for at least two years to focus on caring for a child or other dependent.

“Employers need employees who reflect the diversity of our country and the diversity of their customers,” said Tami Forman, Path Forward’s executive director. “Food delivery is often a lifesaver for those who are caring for their families, and this program provides a pathway for caregivers who very well may have relied on Grubhub’s services in the past to now restart their careers at the company. We are thrilled to partner with Grubhub to launch this program so they can attract people who bring diversity of gender, age, and lived experience to the table.”

Know someone who’s a good fit for the program? Encourage them to apply!

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.}