North Philly is home to one of DoorDash's busiest pickup spots in the world

PHILADELPHIA -- In the parking lot of the Share Food Program warehouse in Phildadelphia's Hunting Park neighborhood, stacks of food boxes marked for low-income area seniors were being loaded into the cars of drivers for DoorDash, the online food-ordering and delivery service.

After one car was filled, the next one rolled up, the operation rapid and crisp outside the food bank, one of the two largest in the region, along with Philabundance.

When it was over in about two hours, more than 500 of the 32-pound senior boxes had been dispatched to older people in need in Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Chester Counties. Share does such distributions on Fridays and Saturdays.

It sends out more than 1,000 deliveries of food boxes via the DoorDash app over twice a week, over two hours on each day — averaging around 4,500 a month.

That earns Share a unique distinction: During the four weekly hours it’s giving out senior boxes, Share handles a greater number of delivery orders than any store or restaurant in the world on the DoorDash app, according to DoorDash executives.

That includes more than 400,000 stores and restaurants in 7,000 cities throughout 25 countries, according to figures from DoorDash executives, as well as from delivery-industry experts.

“It’s a pretty incredible what Share has developed,” said Daniel Riff, a DoorDash senior manager. “They have a remarkable pickup operation.”

Share has an additional distinction: an ability “to adjust volume to acute needs,” according to Keith Fernandez, another DoorDash senior manager.

During the food bank’s largest distribution days, such as last Nov. 17 and 18 — the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving — Share had ratcheted up its senior-box delivery schedule and “fulfilled more orders for its clients than any individual restaurant on [the] DoorDash …[app], globally, for the entire two days,” Fernandez added. He didn’t offer specific numbers.

According to industry figures, DoorDash, at more than 60% of the market, is the largest online food-delivery service in the United States.

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