In a recent blog post, Instacart outlined the ways that it is prioritizing diversity, equity, and belonging efforts.
“Last year, there was a national reckoning of systemic injustice across our communities,” said Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta, in the post. “As an organization, we’ve been on a journey to better understand how we could further support the Black community. In 2021, we’re working to increase equitable outcomes in our systems and processes at Instacart.”
Mehta shared six strategies that Instacart will implement to accomplish this, including:
1. Observing Juneteenth as an official company holiday moving forward for all corporate employees, both in the U.S. and Canada. Instacart encourages its teams to use this day to reflect, listen, learn, and engage in critical conversations around racial injustice.
2. Prioritizing three demographics in the company’s talent strategy—Black, women, and Latinx talent—and investing in Black talent across the entire employee lifecycle. This means addressing the root causes of opportunities and increasing equitable outcomes for employees throughout their careers at Instacart. Specifically, there will be focused efforts such as transforming hiring, developing, and retaining Black talent.
3. Acknowledging and advocating that food insecurity is a social justice issue that disproportionately affects the Black community. “We believe we’re uniquely positioned to help overlooked and underserved communities by supporting food banks,” said Mehta. This effort includes Instacart extending its partnership with Feeding America and Food Banks Canada Network, as well as launching a partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to support local Clubs that serve predominantly Black youth, families, and communities.
4. Leveraging the company’s volunteer time off policy and additional tools to ensure employee volunteering is scalable year-round and enables Instacart teams to more easily connect to causes they care about.
5. Intentionally lifting up Black businesses within the Instacart marketplace.
6. Advocating for voting rights in the U.S. “We know the history of how our country has made it difficult for Black communities to vote, and we proudly stand in support of fair and equitable voting rights as the cornerstone of our democracy,” said Mehta.
Related: Instacart: Pandemic Shopping Habits Remain; Target Commits $2 Billion to Black-Owned Businesses.