Many stakeholders have been left reeling after food delivery app Foodora suddenly announced last week that it will be completely pulling out of Canada by May 11, including Canadian restaurants, creditors, and Foodora employees. 

The Berlin-based company has claimed that it will somehow pay out restaurants to whom it owes money and/or that continue to use the app until its final date, but seeing as Foodora is now in the process of filing for bankruptcy, the creditors that it is in $4.7 million in debt to are unfortunately out of luck. 

And so are Foodora delivery drivers.

Given the situation, Toronto non-profit FoodShare is stepping up to do what it can for impacted Foodora employees, offering free emergency food boxes to the 500 couriers who used to work for the company in Toronto.

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This Giving Tuesday, please support our efforts to bring Emergency Good Food Boxes to Foodora couriers. On May 5, all funds raised will help deliver meals to the frontline workers who delivered to us (link in bio). #Food4FoodoraCouriers #HereForFoodoraWorkers #GivingTuesdayNow #TorontoStrong #May5

A post shared by FoodShare Toronto (@foodshareto) on May 2, 2020 at 6:07am PDT

"Last week, Foodora announced it was closing all its services in Canada, leaving its couriers suddenly out of work," the organization says in one of multiple social media posts on the topic.

"These are essential workers in the gig economy who have been delivering meals door-to-door throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Now it’s our turn."

After one successful week of the program, FoodShare is now asking for the public's help to raise $15,000 to cover another two weeks of delivery of free groceries to Foodora workers, noting that "all funds raised will help deliver meals to the frontline workers who delivered to us."

The response so far has been strong, with many residents calling the move an amazing effort to help a group who is now unexpectedly out of work in the midst of a global pandemic and economic standstill — not the easiest time to try and find another job.

FoodShare has been doing this all on top of delivering hundreds of other food boxes to vulnerable populations all over the city who are facing food insecurity and are in need right now.

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Last week, Foodora announced it was closing all its services in Canada, leaving its couriers suddenly out of work. These are essential workers in the gig economy who have been delivering meals door-to-door throughout the COVID-19 crisis. Now it’s our turn. We’re delivering our Emergency Good Food Boxes to the 500 Foodora couriers in the Toronto area. Your contributions supported one week of Good Food Box deliveries. For #givingtuesdaynow, help us raise $15,000 to cover the cost of two more weeks of fresh, nutritious produce for every out-of-work courier. Join us in using the power of food to build solidarity (link in bio). Thank you for everything. #food4foodoracouriers

A post shared by FoodShare Toronto (@foodshareto) on May 4, 2020 at 10:01am PDT

Regarding Foodora's lack of consideration for its drivers, The Canadian Union of Postal Workers — which is looking to represent couriers — filed an unfair labour practice complaint about Foodora to the Ontario Labour Board, claiming that the company's quick exit from Canada was at least somewhat in response to the possibility that its employees might unionize.

"These couriers don't deserve to be abandoned in the uncertainty of a pandemic," the union said in a statement. "They have rights and we’ll stand up for them"