Expanding access to food is core to our mission at Instacart, and it has been a focus of our social impact work everywhere we operate. In Canada, food insecurity is now affecting one in four Canadians – nearly 10 million people, including nearly 2.5 million children.1
Demand for support has placed even more strain on already stretched non-profit organizations across the country. That’s why we’re now committing more resources in Canada to help local organizations provide nutritious food to neighbors in need.
As Instacart continues to grow our business in Canada, we are excited to announce we’re expanding our multi-year partnership with Second Harvest, Canada's largest food rescue organization.
A New Chapter Built on 5 Years and 350,000 Meals
Instacart and Second Harvest have been working together since 2022, and to date our partnership has helped provide more than 350,000 meals to families and community agencies across Canada.
Grounded in our years of our employee volunteer partnership, we’re now expanding our food access work in Canada, supporting 500,000 more meals.
By deploying our resources to nonprofits in the Second Harvest network, we will now be able to support the food access needs of organizations that run a range of programs for youth, children, and families in Ontario and British Columbia. These selected nonprofits will be able to access food directly through the Instacart marketplace, getting nutritious groceries into the hands of families who need them, more efficiently and at greater scale.
“This partnership brings together what each of us does best: Second Harvest knows the needs of local organizations – the people who know their communities inside and out, while Instacart brings the reach and technology of its platform,” said Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest. “Nonprofits in Ontario and British Columbia will be able to consistently get the hardest-to-rescue foods for people with specific dietary needs, like seniors requiring meal replacement products or a family looking for allergy-friendly food for their child. That's not just more food, it's the right food, delivered with dignity.”
A Model That Works
By channeling resources through Second Harvest's existing non-profit network, we're able to reach families through trusted local organizations. Second Harvest and their partners know these communities in Ontario & BC. We’re excited to combine that expertise with the reach of the Instacart platform and marketplace so that, in combination, we can reach even more Canadians.
We’ve been proud to serve and support Canadian families since 2017, and today we partner with more than 150 retailers. This is the model we've seen work in other markets where we operate, where technology paired with trusted community partners is creating real expansion in food access. As we continue to grow in Canada, we're committing to bringing that same proven approach to support families across the country.
Showing Up Together
This partnership builds on the years of volunteer work that Instacart employees have been dedicating to Second Harvest and other community organizations. This week, to mark the expansion of our partnership, dozens of employees at our Toronto office – along with our company’s entire executive leadership team, including our CEO, Chris Rogers – partnered with Second Harvest to assemble healthy snack kits for school-aged kids that are being distributed to nonprofits across Toronto. It was our largest volunteer event to date with Second Harvest.
We’re excited to continue to work with the Second Harvest team and their network of local partners, as we expand our partnership and bring more food to more Canadians.
