Heroism comes in all shapes and forms. Sometimes they’re superheroes with capes (or no capes if you’re Edna Mode) and sometimes it’s a Facebook group that helps food delivery riders find new buyers for cancelled orders.
Remember that story about how a 13-year-old girl cancelled P364,000 worth of food? Well, food delivery apps thought that by taking out the cancel button, they can stop similar situations from happening again. Sadly, it didn’t, and the nightmare for these food delivery riders continues. Though I can’t really put my finger on what these people get from cancelling orders that have already been placed, all I know is that these types of people have no qualms about making others’ lives miserable.
And if you do this too, shame on you.
A few days ago, a post went viral on Facebook of a Grab driver sitting on the pavement, eating a meal that has been cancelled. It was a sight that Mary Ann Ortiz, a 28-year-old social media manager and marketing consultant freelancer, couldn’t get out of her head. After seeing the post, she and her older sister, Richelyn, thought of ways on how this could be stopped. Initially, they plan to put out their contact details so that food delivery riders could contact them when orders were cancelled but this was too risky so they decided to create a Facebook group instead.
The sisters, together with some of her friends created Order Hero. The group started out with close friends and family but in less than 24 hours, their member count went up to 2,000 and after just a few days, the group is already at 160,000 members and counting.
The mechanics are pretty simple. If you’re a rider looking for an “order hero” or netizens who are interested in buying the cancelled products, all you have to do is post a picture of the official receipt, a screenshot of the proof of cancellation and a photo of the cancelled goods with the caption #iNeedAHero and a hashtag of the city they are in. If you too want to be an “order hero” and help out, all you have to do is join the Order Hero group and wait for a rider in need. Remember to exercise caution because fake accounts do exist.
Art by Dana Calvo
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