Instacart supports California schools impacted by wildfires
A San Francisco-based grocery technology company is assisting students and teachers affected by wildfires in its home state.
Instacart is launching a new initiative called “Classroom Carts,” which supports 28 Los Angeles County public and charter elementary, middle and high schools and nearly 15,000 students affected by the recent California wildfires.
Built on Instacart’s Community Carts customer donation tool, Classroom Carts enables people nationwide to support students and teachers by donating essential supplies directly to impacted Los Angeles-area schools rebuilding from the wildfires through the Instacart app. Many schools now face critical shortages of essential supplies like notebooks, pencils, rulers and art supplies.
Classroom Carts allows anyone across the country to offer support by opening the Instacart app and selecting the Classroom Carts banner or visiting a dedicated donation page on the Instacart site.
Customers can then select from the 28 participating schools and shop for as many items as they choose from a curated list of items based on each school’s specific needs. Instacart partners with a variety of retailers in the Los Angeles area that carry products such as school and office supplies, home goods, and technology items.
A local Instacart shopper will shop and deliver donated items and Instacart will consolidate donated items for delivery to each school. The company is waiving all delivery and service fees on every Classroom Carts order.
The Instacart board of directors is kicking off this initiative by donating a total of $1 million to the Greater Los Angeles Education Foundation, the Pasadena Education Foundation and the LAUSD Foundation to supplement customer contributions to the 28 participating schools.
"The recent wildfires have had a devastating impact on the Los Angeles community, with schools being some of the hardest-hit institutions,” said Fidji Simo, CEO and board chair of Instacart. “With Classroom Carts, we’re giving people across the country a simple and meaningful way to step in and directly contribute the items schools have said they need."
The company’s initial L.A. Fire Relief Community Carts campaign has provided more than 50,000 essential items to 17 local YMCAs and community food banks across the region.
Instacart partnered with the California state superintendent of public instruction Tony Thurmond, the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the Pasadena Unified School District and the Los Angeles Unified School District to identify schools in need.
A growing number of other retailers, including Amazon, Lowe’s Home Depot and Ikea, have also provided support for the wildfires since they began spreading in Los Angeles County in January 2025.
[READ MORE: Amazon's 'Wildfire Relief Hub' assists in LA relief efforts with supplies, tech]
Based in San Francisco, Instacart partners with more than 1,500 national, regional and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace.
