Audible Launches Newark Working Kitchens to Provide Free Meals

Supporting local businesses, including restaurants, has always been a priority for Audible. In 2017, we launched our Lunch Out Wednesday (LOW) program to subsidize hundreds of employees’ meals each week through the distribution of $15 voucher cards. In early March, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka joined us to celebrate the 30,000th Lunch Out Wednesday visit, but today we confront a much different reality.

During this unprecedented time, Audible is doubling down on our commitment to Newark and leveraging our resources to help where we are needed most. We are expanding our local restaurant funding to feed as many local residents and frontline healthcare workers as possible. In collaboration with José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen (WCK) and Marcus Samuelsson, we are launching a free, daily meal delivery service for Newark residents in need—Newark Working Kitchens (NWK). Our goal is simple: to keep our hometown community fed—and our fellow Newark business owners and their employees working.

Audible will seed the NWK initiative with a $1.5M commitment, providing 150,000 meals at $10 each (paid directly to participating restaurants). We’re also launching a mentorship program with Newark Venture Partners (NVP) and Invest Newark to provide restaurant owners and other small businesses free guidance on how best to navigate available federal, state and local funding in response to Covid-19.

Headquartering our company in Newark is one of the best decisions Audible has ever made. Continuing to invest in and support our community, in good times and challenging ones too, is as important as anything else we do.

Learn more about NWK or donate.

Read more about our community work in Newark.