Food access has long been a problem in the neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.
Wards 7 and 8, which are both mostly black, are considered food desserts — both grocery stores and restaurants are scarce compared to the rest of the District. Local organization D.C. Hunger Solutions, which tracks the number of full-time grocery stores operating throughout the city, reported in 2017 that Ward 7 only had two full-time grocery stores while Ward 8 only had one. Close to 150,000 residents live in those two wards.
When Latoya Watson moved to Ward 7's River Terrace neighborhood about a year ago, she noticed this lack of access right away. She typed her address into Postmates, Caviar and DoorDash and each one told her the same thing: They don't deliver to her address yet.
Meal delivery app reach has long been an issue in the region, with services blaming it on the lack of demand or driver availability. Watson decided to do something about it.
On April 4, Watson started a petition on Spendrise demanding those three services extend beyond the Anacostia. As of today, each one has done just that.
"I started this petition because as people in tech, it's our duty to create technology that is accessible to all," Watson told DC Inno in an email after the news. "At its best, technology has the ability to bridge the gap and bring communities together, and at its worst, it can further divide us. Communities of color have been left out for far too long so on April 4th, we demanded equal access to food and technology services that our neighbors West of the River enjoy every day."
DoorDash is the latest delivery service to officially extend its services. According to a spokesperson today, the expansion, which was said to have started on March 28, has now been completed to reach the rest of Wards 7 and the entirety of Ward 8 that it didn't deliver to already. A DoorDash spokesperson did not respond to requests to clarify why it took a month for the service to roll out prior to publication.
On April 20, Postmates officially became the first company to respond to Watson's petition by rolling out delivery East of the River. Caviar followed suit, sending an announcement to reporters on Wednesday evening saying the company had begun rolling out the service earlier this week.
Today, supporters of Watson's cause participated in a virtual "Eat-In," where protesters only ordered food from the apps that served all parts of the District equally and posted on social media using the hashtag #BridgetheGap. Caviar even provided participants with a discount code.
DoorDash's announcement coincides with today's "Eat-In."
Here is Watson's full statement from the Spendrise event page today:
