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COVID Response Center
COVID Response Center

Support

During the COVID-19 crisis, communities have faced unparalleled challenges that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations. Those communities—and governments, businesses, and nonprofits around the world—have been working hard to respond quickly and effectively. As part of this unprecedented mobilization of resources, McKinsey & Company is collaborating with our partners to help protect lives and livelihoods. Our work focuses on addressing food insecurity, underemployment and unemployment, remote-education access, public health, and diversity and inclusion.

Addressing food insecurity | Other collaborations | Social impact

Addressing food insecurity

The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the already massive challenge of food access and affordability for millions of people. Our pro bono support of several food banks helps them ensure that during this time of great uncertainty, they can provide nutritious food to the most vulnerable people in their communities—including many who are now facing hunger for the first time.
We are supporting Feeding America to optimize their supply chain, improving their ability to reduce food insecurity for the more than 54 million people across the United States who are currently estimated to be food insecure. The work will help Feeding America to better understand local needs, identify sources of food to close the demand/supply gap, and improve front-line operations to safely and efficiently deliver food where it’s needed.
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We helped the Greater Chicago Food Depository to organize and analyze vast amounts of community data in order to improve the Food Depository’s ability to prioritize neighborhoods in greatest need of support, optimize food distribution, reduce food spoilage and improve nutritional equity. Our work together enables the Food Depository to better serve over 800,000 residents across 200 communities within Cook County through the efforts of more than 20,000 volunteers.
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We supported Second Harvest to establish operational modeling capabilities to forecast county-level food insecurity, understand potential sources to fill that gap, and raise awareness across public and private sector leaders to develop innovative approaches to food procurement, supply chain expansion, and community response planning. The work is enabling Second Harvest to prepare for surges in demand for food pantry services and optimize their distribution capabilities, strengthening their ability to provide food for people in need across Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, and reducing food waste across the system.
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We worked with the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives in the United Arab Emirates to launch 10 Million Meals, a program that delivered meals throughout the month of Ramadan to some of the country’s most vulnerable communities impacted by COVID-19. By connecting organizations in the restaurant, grocery, and logistics industries, we helped drive donations of individual meals and packaged- and canned-food supplies that were distributed across the country—ultimately delivering 15 million meals to those in need.
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We support #SeamosUno, a program that delivers food to at-risk families in Argentina. As of November 2020, the program has delivered 26 million meals to nearly 500,000 families and attracted the attention of sports stars and politicians alike, who have helped make #SeamosUno a successful fundraiser in the country.
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Collection

Food Security

This collection of articles and multimedia draws together McKinsey’s thinking on food security. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect access to food for many, what can food banks, distribution partners, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector do to increase resilience and ensure that people across North America have reliable access to nutritious meals?

Our other collaborations

The COVID-19 crisis has presented new challenges across public health, education, and industry, even as it has exacerbated existing inequalities. Our pro bono work in these sectors has supported organizations and coalitions charting new territory in their efforts to keep communities healthy and thriving now and in the future.
McKinsey is a founding member of The Trinity Challenge, a new global public health initiative that will use data and analytics to learn from the response to COVID-19 and build greater resilience against future global health emergencies. Over 20 universities, foundations, and leading businesses will combine their best thinking, data, and talent to generate new ideas to address current and future pandemics and award up to £10M to global Challenge entries. The Challenge seeks to reward innovations that focus on identifying future risks of pandemics, building analytical models to help stop or slow them early, and improving health and economic responses.
In partnership with the MIT Media Lab, #BeatTheVirus leverages state-of-the-art media analytics and a coalition of public health experts, ad agencies, and tech companies to amplify recommended behaviors from the CDC and WHO for staying healthy and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
McKinsey provided research and analytic support to Khan Academy as they explored ways to support school districts in the United States to maximize student learning and engagement as they  transition between in-person, hybrid and remote learning environments. With this input, Khan Academy released a new flexible learning index that helps districts self-assess their preparedness to transition between these different learning environments.  We also compiled current practices from education systems around the world and elements included in their hybrid learning readiness, which can inform schools as they prepare for their unique circumstances.
We are a proud partner of the Rework America Alliance, an innovative nationwide initiative led by the Markle Foundation, to help workers emerge from this crisis stronger. The Alliance aims to help millions of workers, regardless of formal education, move into good jobs in the digital economy by accelerating the development of a more effective system of worker training aligned to jobs that employers will need to fill.
We are supporting The United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey and The Philadelphia Foundation in standing up the PHL COVID-19 Fund. The Fund is dedicated to providing critical support to Greater Philadelphia non-profits that are serving the most vulnerable populations affected by the COVID-19 crisis in the region. We are supporting the leadership and central program office to help the Fund operate as effectively and efficiently as possible.
We are working with Project Baseline, an initiative founded by Verily (an Alphabet company), to scale access to COVID-19 testing by helping them to standardize their operations, evaluate designs for at-risk communities, and prepare for anticipated future testing needs (e.g., blood and antibody testing).
We supported a group of teachers to establish the Oak National Academy, a virtual school classroom set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially aiming to meet the immediate need for remote learning during the summer term when schools were closed in the United Kingdom, some 300 teachers have now created a full year’s set of lessons, worksheets, and quizzes, available for free to teachers, parents, and students. Around 10,000 lessons span a range of subjects for both primary and secondary school phases, providing a flexible and broad-based curriculum that schools can use to support the ongoing need for blended in-person and online teaching.

Match talent with jobs

Eightfold AI, in partnership with FMI and supported by McKinsey & Company, has built an AI platform to match people to the right jobs in companies that are hiring. Employers can sign up now for Career Exchange. Individuals can refer their organizations as well.
Sign up for Career Exchange

Our social impact

Stories about how we’re helping people in need
Blog Post

Behind Roberto Uchoa’s work to fight hunger and strengthen food banks

– Meet a senior partner who helps food banks better serve their communities through analytics, reskilling, and more.

2020: A year that changed everything
– As 2020 comes to a close, we have created a timeline of the year’s milestones and what we’re looking forward to in 2021.

Partnering with Rethink Food to create a more equitable U.S. food system
– With more Americans facing food insecurity, a McKinsey team based in New York City helped create a program to safely feed people while keeping restaurants running.

Three takeaways from the Fortune Global Forum
– McKinsey served as the knowledge partner for the annual event, which brings together business leaders across industries to discuss how organizations are leading for the future.

Open COVID Pledge

McKinsey & Company is proud to commit to the Open COVID Pledge, which encourages "holders of intellectual property to share their intellectual property for the purposes of ending and mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic." Content on the COVID Response Center is made available under the following License Terms.

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The contents of this site, including any statements, articles, graphics, charts, checklists, and other materials (“Content”) are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or constitute medical advice.