Corporate Responsibility
- April 29, 2021

Global hunger & giving back: Why meal donation is dear to our hearts at Delivery Hero

At Delivery Hero, we are Heroes because we care. We care for our customers, our teams all over the world, our entire ecosystem restaurants, riders, partners and the communities in which we operate. Our values have carried us on our journey towards building a company future generations can be proud of. 

One key pillar on that journey is to give something back to our communities. Digney Eisner, CSR Manager at Delivery Hero, leads our global meal donations initiatives. Join him behind the scenes as he takes us through the process of setting up donation programs by using tech for good, donating millions of meals in 2020, and why we set ourselves the ambitious goals of donating 10 million meals by the end of 2021. 

Fighting global hunger

As CSR Manager at Delivery Hero, Digney Eisner leads our global meal donation programs

Globally, one in eleven people do not have enough food to lead an active and healthy life. As food delivery is at the core of Delivery Hero’s business, it is close to our hearts to provide everyone with access to nutritious food, which is why we are committed to taking responsibility and joining the fight against global hunger.

Since joining Delivery Hero a year and a half ago, I have been able to lead our global meal donations initiatives and it has brought me such joy to see the impact of our programs around the world. Projects like meal donations have a direct impact on society, and by collaborating with Delivery Hero’s brands across the globe, as well as with our partners and our customers, we have already managed to facilitate impactful ways of giving back on a large scale, and we continue to expand our efforts in this field.

Since Delivery Hero started donating meals to those in need in 2019 through a number of projects, it has become an ever-growing part of how we give back to our communities. By the end of 2020, we already facilitated over 2.8 million meal donations. In line with our core values, we like to aim higher, so we have set ourselves the ambitious goal of donating 10 million meals by the end of this year. 

With food at the heart of the Delivery Hero business, meal donations were a natural place to start, but it’s certainly not where our efforts end. With a wealth of logistical expertise in the delivery space, we strive to use our existing knowledge base to create impactful initiatives. 

So how did we reach this number of donations? Read on to find out more about our various meal donation initiatives. 

Global vision, local impact

Delivery Hero operates in over 50 countries all across the world, which provides us with an existing global network to work with when setting up and facilitating our giving back programs.

In the Middle East, talabat supported COVID relief efforts by partnering with non-profit organizations and charities to donate meals

At the start of 2020, when the realities of a global pandemic became apparent, we knew this was a time for us to act. While we had already been working on setting up various programs, our brands around the world rallied and launched a vast number of initiatives according to local needs, tapping into their extensive knowledge of local delivery infrastructure to provide people with essential goods, meals, medicine, and more. At the same time, our teams shared experiences and learnings across countries and brands, empowering each other to tap into a global pool of know-how and continue to improve our services. 

In the Middle East, talabat supported COVID relief efforts by partnering with non-profit organizations and charities to donate meals. Among other initiatives, the talabat fleets were put at the disposal of foodbanks for logistical support to deliver meals from warehouses and soup kitchens. On top of that, talabat used its app as a tool to facilitate safe and convenient donations from customers to charities, with a focus on fighting hunger. 

We want to build robust structures that will make a long term impact, so we have dedicated teams working on doing just that: getting it right, and making it last

Digney Eisner

Around the world, our brands have set up virtual charities through their apps, allowing for donations to be processed fast and efficiently. In Greece, efood launched its own meal donation program on its food delivery apps, which is backed by company funds. Similar initiatives continue to run across our family of brands, including PedidosYa, foodpanda, talabat, and foodora.

We continue to expand our efforts and programmes to include more people, more partners, and more meals. 

Using tech for good

In addition to our local initiatives, we aim to partner with key global organizations and explore how we can leverage our existing technology to develop innovative ways to help those in need.

One of the areas where we excel as a company is tech integration, which is why we have been working hard on implementing this innovation into our giving back initiatives. We want to build robust structures that will make a long term impact, so we have dedicated teams working on doing just that: getting it right, and making it last. 

In 2020 Delivery Hero announced that it is partnering with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to integrate its ShareTheMeal donation feature into our delivery apps. Our customers around the world can seamlessly “share meals” with people in need, supporting the fight against global hunger at the tap on their mobile phones. We’re proud to be partnering with an institution like WFP in order to amplify our reach and build impactful solutions together. 

Our company values […] continue to guide us on this journey to think outside the box on ideas involving social impact

Digney Eisner

Since launching our Tech4Good integration with the WFP and ShareTheMeal, we have launched in six countries and have provided over 500,000 meals through the integration. Throughout 2021 we will continue to roll out the feature in many new countries. 

Providing meals to those who need it is a true team-effort that includes many Delivery Hero teams as well as partners all over the world. It is truly amazing to see the results of collaboration and social impact projects that have a global reach.

I am humbled by what we have been able to achieve so far as part of our meal donations program and am enthusiastic about how our program will evolve to provide more meals to people who need it. 

Our company values “We are Heroes because we care”, “We deliver solutions”, and “We always aim higher” continue to guide us on this journey to think outside the box on ideas involving social impact. It makes me proud to work for a company where giving back is so central to our core values, and as we grow we continue to come with solutions to support the world around us. 

Written by


Digney Eisner Delivery Hero
Digney Eisner

CSR Manager Delivery Hero

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