People Have to Eat, Creating Boom for Food-Delivery Gig Workers

Olamide Iyanda started as an Instacart “shopper” at the end of February to bolster her income and ease the stress of student loan payments.

Last Friday, her side hustle became her job: along with countless other employees across the country, she got laid off from her full-time role with a public relations firm in Maryland because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

By Sunday, Iyanda was so busy delivering groceries she was limiting herself to six trips a day, as the platform encouraged her to travel to different parts of the Washington metro area to catch up on ...