With the coronavirus wreaking havoc across the world earlier this year, most countries, including Pakistan, experienced severe economic and financial strains. To counter the growing health and economic threats, a number of organisations stepped forward with stringent measures to keep the economy afloat.

One such organisation in Pakistan is foodpanda.

With their recently implemented expansion plans, foodpanda has been able to create jobs for millions of Pakistanis, including the introduction of opportunities for home-based chefs.

With inflation rising due to several factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic and severe urban flooding, this year has been nothing short of a challenge for people all over the country.

For foodpanda, economic empowerment in these tough times didn't just mean expanding operations, creating jobs and hiring people.

The company has created employment opportunities for more than 600 people nationwide, 15,000+ riders, and 10,000+ restaurant owners.

Since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, foodpanda has been innovating its processes to adapt to the new way of living in as little time, with as much efficiency as possible.

The company was amongst the first few to have introduced adequate preventive measures for Covid-19 for their riders and customers at the beginning of lockdowns earlier this year.

As time passed, newer plans and strategies were implemented to keep jobs afloat, while providing customers with unmatched service and discounts.

Also read: Here's how foodpanda HQ is rewarding riders who helped people amid urban flooding in Karachi

Along with that, the company introduced its grocery delivery program, so pandemic-struck Pakistanis were able to stay safe indoors while foodpanda riders zipped through towns to ensure no households run out of grocery and essential items of daily use.

Over 10,000 restaurants generate up to 40% additional revenue through foodpanda.

Empowering the women of Pakistan

Amidst these turbulent times, foodpanda introduced its much celebrated 'home chef' programme, which opened newer avenues for home-based, small businesses run mostly by women, allowing them to feel financially empowered, turning these times of crisis into opportunity.

Here's what women entrepreneurs registered as home chefs on the foodpanda platform have to say about the service:

Meet K's Kitchen from Lahore

A home chef who had never thought of venturing into the food industry before joining the foodpanda platform.

Here's how her experience has been so far:

Meet Angara Foods from Karachi

Afshaan Naz runs her business in DHA Phase-II as a chef and is now registered on the 'Ghar Ka Khana' category on foodpanda.

Here's what she has to say about her experience:

Meet Mom's Kitchen from Islamabad

Shahida couldn't take up a formal job as she had tons of responsibilities demanding attention at home.

Here's what she has to say about her experience:

Along with home chefs, the platform has encouraged Pakistani women to take up food delivery jobs, and a whole lot of public space.

Watch Kiran Fateh's story:

Bridging the gap between restaurants and customers

For foodpanda, empowering vendor partners, which include restaurants, roadside cafes and a number of other sellers across different cities of Pakistan, is of utmost importance.

The company has been introducing newer campaigns and models to facilitate businesses that are new to the use of technology, in particular apps.

Owner of Biryani Mahal in Bahawalpur, Wajahat Bashir, says his revenues grew as he joined the platform that has revolutionsed how Pakistan orders food online.

In the initial days of business, Wajahat earned about Rs50,000 a month. Signing up on the app, his business grew, and is now making over Rs100,000 with the venture all set to expand already.

Check out his story here:

And this is not all..

In a bid to provide financial assistance to those who had lost their daily wage due to coronavirus, the company provided ongoing monetary assistance as compensation to its resilient delivery heroes in cities that had put a halt to the service due to partial or complete lockdowns.

The company also reduced its start-up costs, on-boarding fee and commission for a select restaurants and homechefs during Covid-19; to ensure growth of revenues for these small business, foodpanda also provided marketing support and discounts, loans for vendors in collaboration with Finca, discounted shop insurances in partnership with TPL and a Covid-19 health insurance scheme.

This content is produced in paid partnership with foodpanda Pakistan and is not associated with or necessarily reflective of the views of Dawn.com or its editorial staff.