Pennsylvania has partnered with DoorDash to have healthy, nutritious meals delivered to homebound seniors in need. The initiative is designed to remove barriers and increase enrollment in the underutilized Pennsylvania Senior Food Box Program, which provides life-sustaining meal deliveries and nutrition services to eligible older Pennsylvanians.
Currently, 10 counties, including Bucks, are being served by DoorDash as part of the partnership.
“It’s high time that Pennsylvania’s food assistance programs offer services tailored to the unique needs of their recipients and actively work to remove barriers to access,” said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “This partnership with DoorDash to deliver Senior Food Boxes is a commonsense solution that will make saying ‘yes’ to the box easy. Accepting assistance can be hard enough for some, wondering how to get the food home should never be an added worry.”
More than 300,000 Pennsylvania seniors are eligible for the Pennsylvania Senior Food Box Program, but only about 35,000 are enrolled to receive it this year. Seniors often face barriers to access for food assistance programs because of issues such as transportation, mobility or technology.
Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, Feeding Pennsylvania and their network of food banks are partnering with DoorDash where its coverage overlaps with agencies administering the food box program. Dashers will then deliver boxes to seniors in need. As with any DoorDash delivery, Dashers are compensated.
Eligible participants for the Pennsylvania Senior Food Box Program include low-income individuals who are at least 60 years old and whose household income is at or below 130 percent of the U.S. poverty level. Seniors can fill out the self-certification form found at agriculture.pa.gov/seniorfoodbox or call 800-468-2433 to be directed to the regional food bank distributing the senior food box in their county of residence.
“DoorDash is proud to partner with Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, Feeding Pennsylvania and others to power the delivery of food boxes to seniors through Project DASH and to celebrate this work alongside Secretary Redding and Second Lady Fetterman. This partnership is another example of DoorDash helping to meet an ongoing need for underserved communities,” said Brittany Graunke, DoorDash Drive’s director of government and nonprofit. “Leveraging our last-mile logistics platform, we are committed to promoting convenience and dignity while reducing barriers to accessing meals, groceries and pantry items.”
