DoorDash's New 'Project DASH' Will Deliver Restaurant Leftovers To Food Banks

Food delivery service DoorDash is rolling out a new project that focuses on food waste reduction and sustainability. Named "Project DASH" — which stands for "DoorDash Acts for Sustainability and Hunger" — the project aims to transport food from restaurants to local charities who will use it to feed the hungry. DoorDash is partnering with Feeding America Charity in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for the service.

Project DASH works via Feeding America's Meal Connect app. Restaurants will download the app and snap a photo of their leftover food. MealConnect will then find a place like a food bank or a shelter for the leftovers to go and send a DoorDash driver to pick up and deliver it. DoorDash will use its algorithm to find the most efficient routes for drivers across the city to handle multiple large deliveries.

"Once the clock starts ticking on that donation, there's a limited amount of time for its highest and best use. ... We're maximizing the available shelf life of that donation so we can preserve as much of it as possible for the client to enjoy," Feeding America's director of retail information services, Justin Block, told Fast Company.

The delivery service is currently donating driver time to cover distribution costs. The brand has also announced that they will donate one meal through Feeding America for every order placed through DoorDash. Trying not to order out for dinner? Using DoorDash isn't the only way for you to help those in need — we've thought of 51 ways to fight hunger in America.