Introducing Community Carts: Grocery Donations to Food Banks in Just a Few Taps

With nearly 34 million people in the U.S. currently experiencing a lack of access to nutritious food, we at Instacart believe one of the most impactful ways we can help fight nutrition insecurity is by using our technology and scale to empower the community for good. This Giving Tuesday, we’re pleased to announce the launch of Community Carts, a new feature that reimagines traditional food drives, making it easy for people to donate groceries that food banks need most with the Instacart App. Community Carts gives consumers the opportunity to participate in crowdsourced cart building for good by donating groceries to more than 100 local Feeding America member food banks across the United States, with delivery and service fees waived on every donation order. 

During the week of Giving Tuesday – starting today through December 4 – Instacart will match every dollar spent on Community Cart orders with a donation up to $100,000 to Feeding America.

To start giving, customers can simply open the Instacart App or go to www.instacart.com and tap the Community Carts banners. From there, they can select any participating food bank to support and shop as many items as they’d like from the food bank’s personalized wish list, based on which groceries are needed most for the local community. Instacart shoppers will then deliver the items directly to the food bank according to their local donation guidelines. Whether people donate just a few cans of food or a whole cart, donations will add up quickly as customers come together nationwide between Giving Tuesday and December 31 to contribute to Community Carts. 

With the launch of Community Carts, we’re making it possible for millions of people to make food donations this holiday season with just a few taps, taking the guesswork out of how, what and where to donate. Because every food bank has different needs, each Community Cart is customized to include the food they need most and reflect their operational requirements. Some of the most in demand items from food banks nationwide include canned goods, whole grains, nut butters, cooking oils, and paper products. Once a customer has placed their food bank order, they’ll have the opportunity to share their donation via messaging or social media apps directly from Instacart — encouraging family and friends to join in and #GiveFromTheCart.

In addition to our #GiveFromTheCart Giving Tuesday campaign featuring Community Carts, we’re also pleased to be supporting Partnership for a Healthier America’s Giving Tuesday initiative by matching every donation dollar for dollar up to $50,000 through the end of Giving Tuesday. 

The launch of Community Carts and Instacart’s support of Partnership for a Healthier America’s Giving Tuesday campaign builds on the momentum of Instacart Health, the company’s recently-launched initiative designed to deliver the ingredients for healthier living. One of the key areas of focus for Instacart Health is to increase nutrition security among communities most in need. 

Community Carts are available now on the Instacart App for iOS and coming soon on Android. To learn more about how to #GiveFromTheCart this holiday season, please visit www.instacart.com/store/hub/community_carts. 

Happy Giving Tuesday & happy holidays! 🛒🥫

Instacart

Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.