- “There are several barriers that home delivery really helps with… There’s a huge issue of stigma, especially with what we’re seeing right now, where folks that might not be used to needing this type of support might need to access charitable food.” – Daniel Riff, DoorDash’s head of government and nonprofit operations
WOODLAND, Calif. — As a looming federal shutdown threatens to disrupt SNAP benefits for more than 40 million Americans, DoorDash has announced an Emergency Food Response through its Project DASH initiative. The effort will deliver 1 million free meals and waive delivery fees for 300,000 grocery orders placed by SNAP recipients across the country.
The initiative comes at a critical moment for local food banks and nonprofits, including Meals on Wheels Yolo County, which are seeing surging demand as disruptions to CalFresh and other assistance programs hit vulnerable residents.
Daniel Riff, DoorDash’s head of government and nonprofit operations, said the company began planning weeks ago as it monitored the effects of the federal shutdown on food access nationwide.
“We’ve been monitoring the shutdown to try to understand the impact on all the communities that we serve,” Riff said. “Obviously it’s had an impact on government workers for several weeks now, nearly a month. And we’ve been dreading, but following, the potential impact on SNAP and trying to think about how we are uniquely positioned to address the need in certain ways and what DoorDash can bring to the table.”
He said the company’s emergency plan was designed to provide immediate relief by removing delivery barriers for both individuals and organizations. “We are offering a few initiatives,” Riff said. “One is to again make Project DASH free for our food bank and pantry and Meals on Wheels partners so that they can use our service to deliver food to folks that might not be able to travel. And then we are also waiving delivery and service fees on up to 300,000 grocery orders so that folks can more easily access groceries through DoorDash.”
The initiative will also include direct food donations from the company’s DashMart locations to food banks across the United States.
Riff explained that Project DASH—originally launched in 2018—has already facilitated more than 135 million meal deliveries nationwide through partnerships with hundreds of community organizations.
“Through Project DASH, we partner with food banks, food pantries, and other nonprofits that use the DoorDash delivery platform to deliver food and other resources to folks in their community,” he said. “We also work with Meals on Wheels partners, like Meals on Wheels Yolo County, that might use us if they have gaps in their delivery program.”
He noted that many organizations are now relying more heavily on home delivery due to rising need and logistical challenges.
“There are several barriers that home delivery really helps with,” Riff said. “Folks that are mobility constrained, might not have access to transportation, or might not feel comfortable walking into a food bank or pantry. There’s a huge issue of stigma, especially with what we’re seeing right now, where folks that might not be used to needing this type of support might need to access charitable food.”
Meals on Wheels Yolo County Executive Director Joy Cohan said the partnership could not have come at a more urgent time.
“We’re grateful to have subsidized access again to DoorDash’s ‘Project DASH’ at a time when both new and pre-existing fiscal uncertainty is colliding with increased demand by Yolo County seniors for nutritious meals,” Cohan said. “Our already ballooning wait list for home-delivered meals now hovers around 210 of the very most vulnerable older adults in our cities and isolated rural communities, growing quickly over the past week due to interruptions to CalFresh and other assistance that supports seniors to age in place healthily and safely.”
Cohan said that thanks to Project DASH, the organization can maintain service to over 1,200 local seniors who rely on Meals on Wheels and prioritize high-need residents on the waiting list.
“Minimizing disruption to local seniors’ food security during this period of threats and confusion supports their overall wellbeing,” she said. “MOW Yolo is amazed by the gifts of funds and time from the community to make this happen, including this well-timed assistance from the heroes at DoorDash.”
According to DoorDash, SNAP recipients who already have their EBT card connected to the DoorDash app can begin placing grocery orders with no delivery or service fees starting November 1.
For those not yet enrolled, Riff encouraged uploading SNAP information to their DoorDash account to access the benefit.
“They’ll be able to place a grocery order from a growing number of grocers that we’re partnered with where there will be no delivery or service fees on that order,” Riff said. “And we’ll be sharing more information with those DoorDash consumers in the next day or two.”
Food banks, pantries, and nonprofit partners that wish to participate can contact DoorDash directly.
“We are open to working with new food banks and pantries and nonprofits as well,” Riff said. “They should reach out to us at project@doordash.com and we’d be happy to help them with free delivery in November.”
Riff emphasized that while DoorDash’s emergency actions cannot fully solve the looming crisis, the company hopes to mitigate its impact.
“The scale of this crisis is massive, that more than 40 million Americans might lose their SNAP benefits in two days, and about half of them are children,” he said. “The work that we’re doing is not going to solve that situation. We’re hoping that we can help make things a bit better and that this does not last very long and ends very quickly.”
For more information about DoorDash’s Emergency Food Response and Project DASH, visit about.doordash.com or about.doordash.com/impact/project-dash.
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