Fact Sheet How Home Delivery Can Improve Access to Charitable Food
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Insights from DoorDash's Project DASH
Paige Sonoda, Elaine Waxman, Poonam Gupta, Kassandra Martinchek, Noah Johnson
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Older adults, those with chronic health conditions or mobility limitations, and those lacking reliable access to transportation, face outsized barriers to accessing charitable food in person. In an attempt to address those barriers, DoorDash began partnering with antihunger organizations to deliver food directly to their clients through an effort known as Project DASH. We surveyed approximately 400 home delivery clients and found that home delivery helped clients save money on groceries and removed food access barriers for the 78.4 percent of clients who reported chronic health conditions and mobility limitations. More than half of clients did not receive free groceries before home delivery was available, suggesting this service may have helped clients meet previously unaddressed food needs. However, lack of funding is a barrier to maintaining or expanding home delivery for antihunger organizations, indicating a need to identify longer-term, sustainable funding sources for future home delivery services.

Research Areas Social safety net Disability equity policy
Tags Food insecurity and hunger Emergency food networks Hunger and food assistance
Policy Centers Income and Benefits Policy Center Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population
States California
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