Yelp Care Packages in 2022: Connecting People With Great Minority-Owned BusinessesYelp Care Packages in 2022

Since we committed to a remote-first work model, we’ve regularly sent care packages to our employees across the globe. The contents vary based on location, but we always do our best to feature unique products from minority-owned and small businesses. In 2020, Yelp joined the 15 Percent Pledge, an organization calling on retailers to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses. Back then, the Yelp Culture team—who sends out the quarterly care packages—pledged that 15% of the vendors would be Black-owned. We’re happy to announce that in 2022 25% of the goodies in our North American care packages were from Black-owned businesses.

To accomplish this not-so-small feat of sending quarterly care packages to our 4,500+ employees across the U.S. and Canada, we partnered with Crafty, whose mission is to fuel the world’s workplace. Here’s an overview of the quarterly care packages they helped send out on our behalf:

Q1: Celebrating Black- and Women-Owned Businesses

For this care package, we asked Crafty to work with a few of Yelp’s nonprofit partners: La Cocina, Hot Bread Kitchen, and Local First Arizona. Our employees were able to choose from the following kits, among others:

• La Cocina curated a special box that contained treats from their vast selection of women entrepreneurs, including Baobab Energy Bars from Teranga and Bitter Melon Vegetable Chips from Crisps & Crackles.

• Derek Sips is a business spun out of the Local First Arizona’s entrepreneur program, and they offered an African Coffee Box.

• For folks looking for a little more heat, we offered Shquanda’s hot sauce kit. Shaquanda came to us highly recommended from Hot Bread Kitchen. 

Q2: Celebrating Asian- and LGBTQ+-owned Businesses

In Q2 we curated a box for employees that featured a variety of goodies from Asian- and LGBTQ+-owned businesses. See the selections below for our U.S. and Canadian employees, respectively. 

• Beekman1802 from Beekman1802 (LGBTQ-owned, USA)
• Hard Toffee Candy from Chimes (API-owned, Canada)
• Haldhi Doodh Masala from Diaspora Co. (API +  LGBTQ-owned, USA)
• Golden Spice Granola from Gr8nola (API-owned, USA)
• Seoul Kimchi from Lucky Foods (API-owned, Canada)
• Body Soap Bar from MeowMeowTweet (API-owned, USA)
• Gochujang Sauce from Mother-In-Law’s (API-owned, USA)
• Bean Bark from Remix Snacks (API +  LGBTQ-owned, Canada)
• Seaweed Chips from SeaSnax (API-owned, Canada)
• Watermelon Candy from Tamatiloz (LGBTQ-owned, USA)
• Organic Teas from Uncle Lee (API +  LGBTQ-owned, Canada)
• Sweet Chili Sauce from Wooden Boat (API-owned, Canada)

Q3: Celebrating Latinx-owned Businesses

In the U.S. alone, there are 4.65 million Latinx-owned businesses and we gave our employees a chance to connect with some of them. Just like in Q1 of this year, we offered employees a choice from a selection of curated boxes. 

• GoodFoodBrands – Latinx-owned Snack Box
• Humble Earth – Health and Beauty Box
• Saucy Lips – Sauce Sampler Kit 
• Concrete Geometric – DIY Pot Kits
• La Cocina – Latinx-owned Snack Box 

Q4: Celebrating Minority-owned Businesses

With our year-end care package, we acknowledged and celebrated Yelp’s diversity by shining a light on our many robust employee communities. In true Yelp spirit, we offered goodies from vendors that reflect our vibrant tapestry of Yelp Employee Resource Groups (YERGs). 

• S’more Kit from Stroopies (Woman-owned)
• Winter Soap from 700 Rivers (Woman + Asian-owned)
• Strawberry Chipotle & Fig Jam from Trade Street Jam Co. (Woman + Black-owned)
• Winter Pine Candle from OKcollective Candle Co. (Queer + Women-owned)
• Mexican Spice Chocolate Bar from Cultura Chocolate (Latinx-owned)
• Gallone Maple Syrup from Passamaquoddy Maple (Indigenous-owned)
• Sea Salt Sea Snacks from KPop Foods (Veteran + Asian-owned)

Europe

The fun didn’t stop in North America. Check out how our global teammates’ care packages panned out:

United Kingdom

• Q1 2022: We partnered with Office Pantry to put together a kit featuring women-owned businesses from across the country.
• Q2 2022: Cutter and Squidge is an Asian-owned bakery based in London, and they put together a special hamper for our employees.   
• Q3 2022: October is Black History Month in the U.K. and we partnered with Jamii, a marketplace for Black creators.  
• Q4 2022: For our year-end care package, we collaborated with Mission Kitchen, a London-based shared workspace for independent food businesses. 

Germany

For our German care packages, we partnered with Hamburg-based foodlab and Berlin-based KitchenTown. Throughout the year, their respective vendor communities enriched the kits we sent to our small but mighty team of German-based employees.