Throughout the year, iFood works alongside several NGOs, such as CUFA (Central Única das Favelas), Ação da Cidadania, Amigos do Bem and Voz das Comunidades in their causes (such as the fight against hunger and the empowerment of shanty towns).
Collecting donations from customers through the app, the amounts received are transformed, for example, into meals and food baskets for the most vulnerable Brazilians.
Using the iFood app, customers can also provide immediate assistance to people who are in an extremely vulnerable situation after being affected by the floods in Rio Grande do Sul.
Donations received in the app are donated according to the needs of each project of the partner NGOs. In the case of Rio Grande do Sul, they bought food, drinking water, hygiene and cleaning products, medicines, oxygen cylinders, clothes, shoes, blankets and mattresses for families that were affected by the rains.
CUFA received the majority of these donations – more than R$ 2 million by the beginning of June –, which were also distributed to Ação da Cidadania, Voz das Comunidades and Amigos do Bem.
“CUFA mobilized quickly and was the first to look for us”, says André Borges, Sustainability Director at iFood. “They are doing very important work in distributing water, food and other essential items.”
How these partner NGOs work
Founded in 1990, CUFA (Central Única das Favelas) operates in favelas and peripheral areas to promote social inclusion and improve the living conditions of people living in these communities.
Its main initiatives include education and cultural projects, sports and encouraging entrepreneurship to generate income. CUFA also carries out social actions that meet the emergency and structural needs of communities, such as distributing food, clothing and hygiene materials, as well as health and sanitation campaigns.
● Learn more about CUFA and how it impacted 17 million Brazilians
In the last quarter of 2023, the amounts donated to the NGO through the iFood app paid for the purchase of toys for 608 girls and boys and basic food baskets for 105 families in situations of social vulnerability in territories where CUFA operates.
Citizenship Action
The focus of Citizenship Action is to eradicate hunger and poverty in Brazil, promoting active citizenship engaged in building a more just and egalitarian society.
The NGO was created in 1993 by sociologist Herbert de Souza, better known as Betinho, and some of its main activities are campaigns to collect and distribute food, such as Natal Sem Fome.
The entity also promotes awareness and mobilization of society on issues of hunger, poverty and social inequality and develops projects for social inclusion and improving the quality of life of vulnerable populations.
● Find out how Citizenship Action mobilizes to combat hunger
In 2023, the Christmas Without Hunger campaign raised, on the iFood app, an amount that was converted into 28,902 basic food baskets, which benefited 115,606 people. In October and November, donations on the app were used to deliver 4,623 ready-made meals, produced at the Citizenship Action Solidarity Kitchen, in Rio de Janeiro.
Voice of Communities
Voz das Comunidades' mission is to give visibility to the voices of those who live in Rio de Janeiro's favelas. To this end, the NGO founded in 2005 by Rene Silva promotes community communication that aims to strengthen the identity and autonomy of residents of these areas.
On a daily basis, Voz das Comunidades produces and distributes news and reports about favelas and peripheries with the aim of informing residents about relevant issues and providing a local perspective on topics that matter to the community.
In addition to journalism, the NGO carries out campaigns to collect and distribute food, hygiene materials, clothing and other essential items for families in vulnerable situations.
In the last quarter of 2023, the entity received R$ 4,291 from iFood, which were applied to inclusion projects for children and adults.
Friends of Good
Founded in 1993 by Alcione Albanesi, the NGO fights against hunger and poverty in the northeastern hinterland – the region with the lowest HDIs (Human Development Indexes) in Brazil.
Amigos do Bem is one of the largest social projects in the country, transforming the lives of more than 150 thousand people, every month, in 300 different villages, with continuous projects for education, work and income and access to water, housing and health.
The institution also carries out emergency actions and develops ongoing projects. After so many years serving the northeastern hinterland, the NGO began a major emergency action and is helping RS at this time as well.
Donations made through the iFood app in the last quarter of 2023 (R$ 149,285) were used to pay for 1,372 basic food baskets, directly impacting around 7 thousand people in situations of extreme poverty.
How to make a donation and help families in RS
In the application, it is possible to choose the entity that will receive the donation and the amount is fully allocated to the selected organization.
- Open the iFood app and click on “Profile” in the bottom right corner of the screen
- Scroll to the option “Donations”
- Select one of the NGOs: CUFA, Ação Cidadania, Voz das Comunidades or Amigos do Bem
- Click on the “I want to donate” button
- Choose an amount and click the “Send Donation” button
