Giving Back This Holiday Season
Eager to find a way to help those who are food insecure while at the same time supporting local restaurants across the country, Marcus Lemonis is proud to kickstart the “Plating Change” program with a $1 million donation through the Lemon-AID Foundation. Working together with GrubHub, the leading online and mobile food-ordering and delivery marketplace, and some of Marcus’ closest celebrity friends, Americans across the country will have the chance to get involved and support their local restaurants.
Throughout the Holiday season, Grubhub members can take part while ordering in by opting-in to Grubhub’s Donate the Change, rounding up their order total, and donating the difference to World Central Kitchen in support of their Restaurants for the People program. This incredible program not only helps independent restaurants by purchasing meals and driving direct revenue but also employees of the business itself and the entire food ecosystem, all while also providing meals for communities in need.
The Lemon-AID Foundation will jumpstart this program with a $500,000 donation to help World Central Kitchen and Grubhub take immediate action in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia, bringing food to those who need it most.
For members of the Grubhub+ membership program, Grubhub will also match all eligible Donate the Change donations, as well as donating an additional $100K to World Central Kitchen through their Sound Bites concert series.
“This year has been a struggle for so many people and businesses around the country, and we know winter will bring a new set of challenges,” said Seth Priebatsch, chief revenue officer at Grubhub. “We’re so appreciative of Marcus’ partnership and contribution to World Central Kitchen to provide meals to those who need them most while also supporting the restaurants we all know and love.”
Over the next couple months, Marcus will donate the remaining $500K to additional charitable organizations that fight food insecurity as well as local restaurants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Marcus will be connecting with notable friends including Kristen Bell, Alex Rodriguez, Pharrell Williams, and NFL Hall-of-Famers Andre Reed and Terrell Davis amongst others across the country to surprise some of their favorite local restaurants with a large “special order” which will help their local eatery earn sales. Each eatery will in turn pay it forward by donating the order to people who are facing food insecurity.
Join Marcus in Giving Back
By going to wck.org/platingchange, people across the country can donate to World Central Kitchen in support of the program, whether it’s a single meal (value of $10) or more.
About Plating Change
The “Plating Change” program falls under the newly launched The Lemon-Aid Foundation where Marcus pledged $50M to champion his charitable mission of supporting and investing in underserved communities and small businesses. These investments will be in the form of loans and equity investments and will be designed to have a measurable charitable impact on the communities and businesses being served by the foundation. The foundation also intends to make grants to other charitable organizations that share the same mission and goals. Lemonis intends to apply the same type of rigor that he applies in his own investments to the impact investing of the foundation.
