Pizza Hut is leading the donations having pledged 300,000 meals using its network of 700 restaurants. Meals include pizza as well as side salads, pasta and other options for NHS workers near its UK restaurants.
The company has also donated funding to help cover the cost of deliveries.
Deliveroo aims to deliver 500,000 free meals pledged by restaurant groups to hospital staff and is working with partners for more donations. It has so far secured donations of 350,000 free meals from restaurants.
It says it intends to deliver to NHS sites where there is a need for food, whether hospitals, primary care sites or field hospitals, including sites such as the new Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre.
Meals will be available over time as it works with hospitals to identify where need is greatest, raises funds and gives restaurants across the UK the chance to donate meals. Meals will be made available where Deliveroo provides coverage.
It will be fundraising to support this campaign, raising funds from corporate and individual donations.
Deliveroo customers are now also able to make a meal contribution to doctors, nurses and volunteers via its app.
“Those in the NHS working night and day to save lives are the real heroes of this crisis, and we want to do our small part to support them and the vulnerable who aren’t able to leave their homes,” says Deliveroo CEO and founder Will Shu.
“Deliveroo is a British business and, as the founder, nothing would make me more proud than to use the network we have built to support the NHS, and I know the restaurant sector wants to play its part too.”
The majority of the meals delivered will go to the NHS, but Deliveroo says it will also continue to deliver free food to the vulnerable during this period. It has recently worked with St Mungo’s and other charities to deliver meals to homeless people sheltered in hotels in London, and will continue to support such organisations and those in need.