Celebrating Pride Month with Rainbow Carrots

Instacart just wrapped up an amazing Pride Month where we celebrated and recognized our LGBTQ2IA+ community! Instacart’s Rainbow Carrots Employee Resource Group (ERG) led the charge by hosting a series of virtual and in-person events that represented its mission of celebrating diversity in our communities, driving improvements in the work environment, and providing support for our LGBTQ2IA+ employees and allies. 

Here’s a snapshot of the month’s programming:   

• Fun Color Fridays: To give some history behind the colors of the Pride Flag, all employees were encouraged to wear a different color of the rainbow every Friday, including wearing black on Friday, June 16, in support of the company-wide observance of Juneteenth.
• A Conversation on Using Proper Pronouns: We offered an informative session for employees to explore and unpack the importance of proper pronoun usage. 
• Carrot Fertility Info Session: Instacart employees were able to learn about the family-forming options available to the LGBTQ2IA+ community.   
• Getting Together: In-person celebrations were held in Chicago, New York, Toronto, and San Francisco—as well as a virtual happy hour for everyone in any office to come and celebrate together. Instacart’s General Counsel and Rainbow Carrots Executive Sponsor, Morgan Fong, also hosted a lunch with our Toronto-based Rainbow Carrots followed by a special Drag-themed happy hour.

Another highlight was Rainbow Carrot’s first-time participation in the San Francisco Pride Parade. Over 40 ERG members, friends, and allies marched together – all wearing “Nourish Queerness” shirts and informative banners to raise awareness for the ERG’s mission. In lieu of a parade float, the ERG decided to donate to a local San Francisco non-profit, Larkin Street Youth, as a way to tangibly support the community while still gaining visibility for the cause. 

“I wanted to have our company show up for the queer community in a tangible and public way. The reason I felt that it was important was because this year the queer community is under attack in a way that we haven’t seen in a long time. It felt immensely important to show that support this year more than any other,” said Corinne McCreery, Rainbow Carrots Lead. 

The ERG’s “Nourish Queerness” tagline was one they created to not only grab attention but to connect back to the company’s mission. ”Instacart’s mission is to ‘create a world where everyone has access to the food they love’, and partnering with great nonprofits helps us make this a reality. Everyone means everyone, and the queer community deals with higher rates of folks who deal with food insecurity than most other communities,” said McCreery.  

Looking back on the month, ERG leads hoped Rainbow Carrots and Instacart employees walked away with an increased sense of belonging, company support, and most importantly— a sense of pride over what we have accomplished as a community. 

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.