Via, Genuine Foods launch emergency meal delivery service for D.C. students

Via and Genuine Foods, an East Coast-based, high-volume food service provider, have partnered to support on-demand emergency meal kit deliveries for charter school students in Washington, D.C., starting with Creative Minds International Public Charter School.

With schools closed across the Washington, D.C., metro area due to COVID-19, children may face food insecurity. Via says Genuine Foods is focused on ensuring this population receives healthy and nutritious meals at home. Genuine Foods has partnered with Via to introduce a technology-driven solution to support rapidly increasing demand, and to address driver supply shortages for emergency home delivery services.

The meal delivery program took shape in Washington, D.C., when Creative Minds International Public Charter School approached Genuine Foods about a food distribution partnership. Since switching to remote learning in March, Creative Minds had been looking to provide its students—and any other children in their households—with free meals on both weekdays and weekends, in a way that didn’t require families to leave their homes.

“As the coronavirus outbreak closed schools, we set up ‘Grab and Go’ stations to serve a week’s worth of meals to students, but quickly realized that we needed to adapt immediately to support the sharp increase in need for emergency meals in just the D.C. area alone,” said Jeff Mills, CEO of Genuine Foods. “Through our partnership with Via, we were able to rapidly pivot to a focus on home delivery powered by technology, which enables us to feed even more students in need, and to have the flexibility to react to the ongoing crisis in real time.”

The service launched on April 15, with Via drivers delivering 170 meal kits to more than 70 Creative Minds families in one day. Deliveries increased the second week of operation, and Via and Genuine Foods say they plan to scale the program to serve additional schools and children in the coming weeks.

“A hallmark of the Creative Minds community is its strength. We are resilient and thoughtful in supporting one another, and in this unprecedented time, we are stepping up our support for families and students,” said Chuck Jackson, executive director of Creative Minds. “This wonderful free-meals delivery partnership with Genuine Foods and Via means that our students, and any other children who live with them, are well nourished every day, right at home. And we are helping to ease any financial burdens our families may be facing.”

Via’s technology, originally developed to provide on-demand public transit solutions, is now being used to plan and route pickups of the weekly meal kits, including fresh produce prepared by Genuine Foods, and to facilitate driver support. Via runs an on-demand shared ride service in Washington, D.C., and is using its capabilities to serve the community in a time of need, and to provide new earning opportunities to its local driver base while many transit services are reduced, says Via. In addition, Via’s driver community can fill the gaps in supply needed to properly support the high demand for at-home meal delivery. Drivers helping with Genuine Foods delivery log into the Via app and follow delivery instructions, with access to live Via support.

“We are proud to work with Genuine Foods and excited to leverage Via’s technology to rapidly launch a meal delivery service that will feed students and families in Washington, D.C., during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Daniel Ramot, CEO and co-founder of Via. “Through our partnership with Genuine Foods, we were able to introduce a flexible and efficient solution to both support emergency delivery of meals and provide further earnings opportunities for our driver partners.”