Project DASH is DoorDash’s initiative to empower food banks, food pantries, and other social impact organizations to deliver food and essential items to people experiencing food insecurity. Since 2018, Project DASH has powered more than 5 million deliveries of an estimated over 80 million meals.
As part of this ongoing work, DoorDash has awarded more than $500,000 in Project DASH Impact Grants to over 200 food banks, food pantries, and other social impact organizations located in more than 30 states. These grants can be used for any home delivery-related expense, including securing more nutritious food, defraying staff costs, powering more deliveries, or reaching new populations. With this round of funding, we are glad to continue helping residents access food in a way that emphasizes convenience and dignity.
“We are extremely grateful to DoorDash for this generous Project DASH Impact grant,” said Julie Yurko, President and CEO at Northern Illinois Food Bank. “These funds will help increase the number of home deliveries from our food pantries and programs like My Pantry Express and ensure our neighbors who lack transportation and accessibility, have access to the nutritious food they need to thrive, with dignity, equity and convenience.”
Across the U.S., partners plan to leverage their Project DASH Impact Grants to provide a broader selection of food options and personal care products, serve people more regularly and supplement volunteer home delivery, defray partner staff costs, and deliver to vulnerable populations facing transportation barriers. Some examples of partners leveraging Project DASH Impact Grants to augment their work include:
the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina growing their reach in rural areas and incorporating delivery into their backpack-based children's nutrition program, while continuing to serve senior food box recipients; and
Preble Street in Maine adding fresh produce, culturally appropriate ingredients, and other items in food box deliveries.
"Hugs and Hope extends our heartfelt gratitude to DoorDash for their invaluable support in our mission to broaden our impact through the launch of our 'Bags of Hope' Program providing food deliveries for families of children attending Title 1 schools and senior citizens. The deliveries are made on Fridays, ensuring they have sustenance over the weekend when the children are away from school. Thank you for making a difference with us because our partnership is instrumental in spreading not only hope but also an abundance of hugs," said Jeri Austin, Executive Director, Hugs and Hope.
“Local delivery of charitable food helps break down barriers to access for seniors, people with a disability, working parents, and other people in local communities,” said Daniel Riff, Head of DoorDash Drive, Government & Nonprofit. “We’re excited to help our partners across the U.S. serve more people in innovative ways by providing more than half a million dollars in Project DASH Impact Grants to food banks, food pantries, and other social impact organizations. DoorDash is committed to working alongside our partners and stakeholders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to continue broadening food access.”
Project DASH empowers social impact organizations—such as food banks and pantries—to work with Dashers and use DoorDash technology to provide local delivery to their communities. These partner organizations determine who receives deliveries, when deliveries will take place, and where the distribution site will be. Dashers complete the deliveries, and recipients receive updates via text message throughout the process.
In 2023, the Urban Institute released a report, Connecting People with Charitable Food through New Home Delivery Partnerships. The report, supported by DoorDash, found that Project DASH has helped alleviate organizational capacity challenges in implementing home delivery, reduced stigma and enhanced convenience, and expanded the communities anti-hunger organizations served, including by connecting hard-to-reach populations with charitable food.
Organizations interested in expanding their existing delivery efforts or learning more about how delivery can enhance their programs can contact the Project DASH team at projectdash@doordash.com.
