The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024
Just Eat lets UK users fund a homeless person's meal instead of their own takeaway
For two weeks in December, Just Eat users could order a meal for someone facing homelessness at Soup Kitchen London instead of receiving one themselves.
Just Eat · Soup Kitchen London
What it had to solve
Homeless Delivery is an initiative that combines takeaway ordering and charitable giving. The aim was to support people in desperate need during the festive season by making a donation feel as familiar as ordering food.
How it works
Soup Kitchen London supports people facing homelessness, and its need peaks at Christmas. Homeless Delivery set out to make giving as familiar as the takeaway ordering millions already do through the Just Eat app.
For the first time, people across the UK could donate a meal through the app: instead of receiving a meal for themselves, their order funded a meal for someone facing homelessness at Soup Kitchen London.
Running during the last two weeks of December, the campaign turned everyday food ordering into an act of giving and provided support to people in desperate need during the festive season. The initiative is archived in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- The donation rode an existing behaviour — ordering food — so giving needed no new habit, platform or journey.
- Framing the gift as a meal for someone facing homelessness made the impact concrete and immediate.
- Running in the last two weeks of December aimed the channel at the moment of greatest festive need.
- Using Just Eat's own app let a commercial platform become a charity channel at the scale of everyday ordering.
What it did
The initiative turned everyday food ordering into an act of giving at the moment of the year when support was most needed, letting a delivery app act as a donation channel. The work is archived in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
Put the donation where the habit already is: an order that also gives removes the extra step, extra thought and extra platform that charity usually demands.
Since then
The initiative entered the D&AD awards archive as an example of takeaway ordering combined with charitable giving. For Soup Kitchen London, the Just Eat app became a donation point that looked exactly like an ordinary order.
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