Celebrating Parents Month at Instacart

Each April, we set aside time to recognize Parents Month and celebrate our incredible Parents@ Instacart community.

This year, we partnered with our Parents@ Employee Resource Group (ERG) to host virtual programming designed to support the community, celebrate Instacart’s “Little Carrots,” and foster a strong sense of community for all parents as we continue to work from home.

Some of the highlights included a virtual family yoga class designed for Instacart parents and kids of all ages hosted by a yoga instructor on our Recruiting team, a family-friendly magic show hosted by the talented Alex Ramon, a kid-friendly virtual pizza-making class, custom kits with Instacart gear for kids of our Parents@ community, and a session with clinical and school psychologist Dr. Eduardo Roldan for a discussion on supporting children through the challenging circumstances they’ve faced during the pandemic and strategies for avoiding burnout. 

Throughout the month, we also facilitated conversations about the distinct challenges working parents are still facing. The global pandemic continues to test the resilience of working parents as the community wears multiple hats as parents, teammates, and home school teachers, among second-shift duties. What’s more, a recent study conducted by Lean In/ McKinsey & Company found that second shift responsibilities unequally fall on mothers (more than fathers) with mothers spending 20+ hours a week on household chores and childcare. Now more than ever, it’s critical we ensure that our entire parent community, especially working moms, are fully supported. We will continue to listen and understand as advocates for our parent community within the virtual walls of Instacart.

We also introduced our newest Employee Resource Group — Advocates@ Instacart — to our Instacart communities in April. Advocates@ Instacart’s mission is to strengthen the Instacart community by celebrating and uplifting diverse voices through programming focused on diversity training, development, and social impact. 

In tandem with Parents Month, Advocates@ shared a few ways colleagues can show up as advocates for parents and caregivers in the workplace:

• Set & Respect Family Boundaries: Encourage and support parent colleagues by respecting family and caregiver time blocks on the calendar when they may need to step away from work to fulfill commitments. 
• Support Flexible Schedules: Consider if flexible schedules work for your team (i.e. starting earlier/ending earlier, and/or finishing earlier/later in the day). With Summer approaching, working parents may need to adjust schedules to care for their children and families as parents continue to be faced with limited childcare options during the pandemic. 
• Embrace the Interruptions: If a child makes an appearance on a call, take a moment to say hello and interact with them. 
• Be Understanding: Peers, be mindful that parents and caregivers might be more delayed in responding to Emails, Slack messages, etc. when they are performing caretaker duties.

Thank you to our Parents@ and Advocates@ communities for helping us honor Parents Month!

No matter what you bring to the potluck, there’s a seat at the table for you. Learn more about Instacart’s communities and current openings.

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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.