It’s not even Halloween yet, but already grocery store displays are showing off pumpkin pie filling, boxed stuffing, and other accoutrements to the traditional Thanksgiving meal. But with 37 million people in the U.S., including 11 million children, currently struggling with hunger, putting an elaborate holiday feast together is a stretch for many, out of the question for some.
On-demand food service Bite Squad has responded to the problem today by announcing a new campaign to deliver hot meals on Thanksgiving to thousands of families in need. Called Share Thanksgiving 2019, the program originally belonged to food delivery service Waitr, which Bite Squad acquired in 2018. It works like this: from today until November 5, restaurants are invited to commit to donating meals to families in need. Meanwhile, Bite Squad-Waitr employees and customers can nominate families. Bite Squad will also work with local community organizations to identify those most in need.
From the campaign page:
Over the next month, Waitr and Bite Squad employees and members of the local community will nominate families in need for the program. During this period, when anyone orders from Waitr, the company will make a donation that will go toward covering the cost of the meals. Each meal will be prepared by participating restaurant partners, allowing us to jointly provide eligible families with (literally!) restaurant-quality meals.
Just before Thanksgiving day, volunteer employees will come together to deliver the meals to the families.
Waitr founded the campaign in 2017, when it delivered 1,000 Thanksgiving meals to families in need. That number doubled in 2018, and this year, the Waitr-Bite Squad entity said it aims to share over 4,000 meals across 50 U.S. Waitr-Bite Squad markets. That includes the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
We’ll be keeping an eye out over the next few weeks for other restaurant and food companies doing their part to help the needy this Thanksgiving. (Know of any? Drop me a line.) In the meantime, those interested in Bite Squad’s program can nominate a family here.
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