The Problem:

March 2020. Death tolls rose, and buildings shuttered. Shelter at home is what we were told. Yet this isn’t always possible. Groceries, medications, and toilet paper. Necessities for daily life were only available for those who could make it to the grocery stores. This left the elderly and immunocompromised with a choice: brave the risk of COVID and possibly death from the grocery store, or go hungry.

The People:

The mission of ZoomersToBoomers was born from a single post on Nextdoor. I wrote:“Hi all, my name is Danny Goldberg and I’m a junior at San Marcos High School... I’ve assembled a team of young people to deliver groceries for those who need to shelter at home.”

At the time, that “team” was just me.

But the need was real, and immediate. Within hours, emails flooded in. A woman named Ronnie told me over the phone, “I’m on my last can of soup. I don’t know if I can make it through the week.”  That call galvanized everything. I began texting friends, recruiting volunteers, and organizing deliveries from sunrise to long past sunset. Gen Z, at lower risk for COVID, banded together to protect those at higher risk in our community.

The Journey:

On March 18, 2020, I founded ZoomersToBoomers, a free grocery delivery service for the elderly and immunocompromised. I spun up a website using Wix and G-Suite, embedded a Google Form for orders, and built an early operations pipeline (mainly through winging it).

At first, we was sprinting just to stay afloat. Grocery lines stretched out the door. Orders came in faster than we could shop. But we kept showing up. And as demand increased, so did our systems. We formed partnerships with stores like Trader Joe’s, who provided prepackaged orders and off-hours access to streamline fulfillment.

Soon, we began to think bigger. Food insecurity wasn’t unique to Santa Barbara. So I set out to replicate our model across the country. I built onboarding documents, training materials, and operational templates, everything a local leader would need to launch ZoomersToBoomers in their own community. By summer, we had grown into a network of 38 cities, including one in Hyderabad, India, powered by over 1,000 volunteers.

The Expansion:

To support this growth, I pursued strategic partnerships. After many cold emails and late-night phone calls, I secured collaborations with Alaska Airlines, the California Governor’s Office, and Colgate-Palmolive, which awarded us a $10,000 grant. That funding enabled us to launch a new branch of the service: free groceries for those financially impacted by COVID.

Throughout the process, I transitioned from frontline delivery to full-time organizational leadership, developing safety protocols, growing our brand, and building the infrastructure needed to scale compassion.

The Solution:

ZoomersToBoomers became more than a delivery service. Over the course of two years, we:

• Delivered groceries to 15,000+ elderly and immunocompromised individuals

• Mobilized 1,000+ volunteers across 38 cities

• Built a fully replicable, franchise-style nonprofit model

• Partnered with corporations and government agencies to expand our reach

• Proved that even in crisis, grassroots action can drive national impact

  
  

What Our Customers Said:

Impact:

ZoomersToBoomers began as a quick website and a bold promise. It became a nationwide network of empathy in motion. We didn’t wait for help to arrive, we became the help.

Read About it Here:

Forbes Article 1

Forbes Article 2