Each summer, more than 21 million children who depend on free or reduced-cost school meals lose access to that support the moment school lets out — falling hardest on families with the fewest options.

Recently, Instacart launched our biggest-ever Summer Hunger campaign through Community Carts, which make it easy for anyone to donate directly to one of our more than 300 local Feeding America® food bank partners, with all delivery and service fees waived. Instacart’s Community Carts technology reimagines the traditional food drive, helping food banks secure the exact grocery items they need most (find and support your local food bank at instacart.com/donate). 

Today, we're thrilled to share the next chapter – one we believe will make this campaign even more powerful, more personal, and more rooted in the communities it's built to serve.

Instacart is proud to announce we’re teaming up with Howard University Athletics and The Mecca Society, Howard's NIL collective — bringing 10 Howard student-athletes into a new social-first summer hunger awareness and mobilization campaign called "Home Team."

Meet the Home Team

Every Howard student-athlete comes from somewhere. From the Bronx to North Texas, from Las Vegas to Silver Spring, from Florida to Chicago — each of them has a home community, and each of those communities has a Feeding America food bank working every day to make sure families and kids have enough to eat. This summer, those athletes are channeling that same dedication off the court and off the field, and pouring back into the communities that helped shape them.

Through the “Home Team,” these 10 Howard student-athletes will use their platforms throughout the summer to call attention to summer hunger in their own hometowns and encourage their fans and followers to meet the moment by donating to their local Feeding America food bank back home.

The first student-athlete we'll meet this summer is Wisdom Colbert. From Jacksonville, Florida, Wisdom is a standout softball player at Howard University. Not long ago, she was one of the kids growing up in those same neighborhoods, playing on those same courts and fields. This summer, she’s going back for them — making sure the children coming up behind her have the nutrition they need to grow, play, and thrive the way she did.

Watch Wisdom share why fighting summer hunger is personal, and how you can help support right now. 

How You Can Join In

Whether you're a Howard Bison fan or simply someone who wants to help kids in your community this summer, you can be part of "Home Team":

1. Donate. Visit instacart.com/donate, find a Feeding America food bank in your community, and shop directly from its wishlist. Your Instacart shopper will deliver the items straight to the food bank. Instacart waives all delivery and service fees on every Community Carts donation.

2. Show up local. When you donate, make it your local food bank. The whole idea of "Home Team" is that summer hunger is solvable, one community at a time — starting with yours.

3. Share. Follow @Instacart and @hubisonsports on Instagram, and share the student-athlete content to your own networks

Summer hunger isn't an abstract problem. It's a very real challenge many communities face when school lets out. And it's solvable — but only if more of us decide to do something about it.

To donate today, visit instacart.com/donate.

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