Sometimes ordering food online during the pandemic can get personal. Just ask Subin Park, who used the largest food delivery service, DoorDash, to order food this summer, only to find fellow student Simon Graber Miller at her doorstep.  

As food delivery apps and services have seen a 51% increase in business since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students at Goshen College have also found employment through services such as DoorDash, Grubhub and InstaCart.

For several months this summer, Simon Graber Miller, a biology major with a computer science minor, delivered food for Grubhub and DoorDash.

“I chose to do Grubhub and DoorDash because it was very difficult to find a job at the start of the pandemic, and I wanted to make my own hours,” he said. “It was initially just a hobby for me, but after a while I started to do it full time.”

The majority of Graber Miller’s deliveries were for fast food, but several local restaurants also used the service.

“Venturi and Maple City Indian were also popular places to have food delivered,” Graber Miller said. 

When reflecting on the summer, Graber Miller found his new job satisfying. 

“[Making] my own hours so I can work whenever I [wanted] to, listening to music in my car, not really having to interact with anybody, no stress,” Graber Miller said, as to the perks of the job. “Though depending on the day of the week, it could sometimes be pretty inconsistent in terms of how many orders I would get in a day.”

“I would definitely recommend becoming a Grubhub or Doordash delivery driver,” Graber Miller said.“It’s honestly fun, and you can do it whenever you want if you need to make some quick cash.”

Ian Martin, a senior psychology major with a music minor, also delivered food for DoorDash. Before that, he worked for InstaCart for three weeks delivering groceries. 

“It was doing me pretty good, I got about $15 an hour,” Martin said. “Then I started doing DoorDash, which was easier and allowed for less contact with other people.”

Martin used DoorDash for himself “just to see how it goes,” he said. “We ordered from a sushi bowl place and got a hodgepodge of vegetables, with salmon or some kind of fish, and a sauce over top.”

While Martin enjoyed his time with DoorDash, he said that there was a lot of driving time.

“I was also using more gas and putting more miles on my car,” he said. “I’d rather put wear on the car for personal use.”

Martin is no longer working for DoorDash, but has fond memories of the time; sometimes he even “DoorDash-ed” with his mom.