Sharing Love through Food: How Instacart is Supporting Local Communities this Holiday Season

At Instacart, we are proud to support communities all across North America by connecting families to the food they love and the nourishment they need. This holiday season, that’s more important than ever, with inflation and rising food costs making it challenging for many to put food on the table. Meanwhile, local food banks are struggling to keep pace with demand, with more than 40% currently running a budget deficit in their attempts to provide enough food to support their communities.

That’s why we’re joining forces with food banks, local community groups, and elected officials in cities across the country to help get more food to more families this holiday season. 

Earlier this month, I was proud to join several Instacart team members and an Instacart shopper at the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, DC to help receive and sort grocery donations powered by the food bank’s Instacart Community Cart — a new tool that reimagines traditional food drives, allowing anyone to easily donate and send the exact food items their local food bank needs most in just a few taps via the Instacart App (learn more about Community Carts). 

Days later, Instacart was proud to partner with Food Bank for NYC and New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to bring over 100 bags of fresh produce to the Bronx’s annual Holiday Toy Giveaway. The event sent local families home with toys and nutritious food for the holidays and helped raise awareness around Food Bank for NYC’s own Community Cart. 

Food banks like the Capital Area Food Bank and Food Bank of NYC play such a vital role in our communities, and they have been called on to do even more in the last few years. We applaud their leadership, and we’re proud to partner with more than 100 Feeding America partner food banks to power and promote their Community Carts this holiday season, helping ensure they’re getting the exact food items they need to support their local communities.

These were just two of the many on-the-ground events we’ve been proud to host or support in local communities this holiday season. Last month, Instacart helped families prepare for Thanksgiving by donating frozen turkeys and groceries for delicious side dishes to families in need in both Los Angeles and St. Louis. 

We also partnered with many more local groups across the United States in recent weeks, including partnering with the San Francisco Marin Food Bank for an event with shoppers celebrating the launch of Instacart Health and Community Carts, donating to the GrowNYC Farmstand to support their local farmstand, and joining the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts’ annual March Against Hunger.

This important work will continue through the rest of the holiday season and into the new year. Next week, for example, we’re excited to join Councilmember Monica Rodriguez in Los Angeles and co-host an event where we will help distribute holiday boxes filled with fresh food.

As the leading grocery technology company, we recognize we have an opportunity and a responsibility to help address hunger and fight nutrition insecurity, and we are grateful to our Feeding America food bank partners and other local community groups across the U.S. for the work they do all year round to bring food to those who need it most. 

Whether you donate financially, send much-needed food items, or give your own time by volunteering, we invite you to spread holiday cheer this season by helping put more food on the table for a family in need. To learn more about how you can give back to your community, check out Community Carts and donate to your local food bank today.

Dani Dudeck

Dani Dudeck is the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Instacart.