Our 2023 Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

2022 was a big year! We're really proud of the diverse community of writers, photographers, video creators, and other contributors that we've built at Simply Recipes over the past few years, and have been so happy that we get to share their stories and images with all of you. We've also reviewed our extensive library of recipes and articles, and have worked to remediate instances of bias or cultural appropriation. Simultaneously, we have established best practices with our writers and editors so that any new content being published on Simply Recipes meets our standards for anti-bias, inclusivity, and respect.

Our work in 2023 will focus on making sure these best practices continue to be encouraged and enforced. Our goal is for D&I to be integrated into every aspect of our work so that it becomes second nature.

We will continue to devote 30% of our budget toward work that supports BIPOC and LGBTQ+ creators, increases our library of world cuisine recipes and related articles, and shares stories and experiences from under-represented communities.
We remain dedicated to growing a diverse full-time and part-time team. We will actively recruit racially diverse candidates for all open roles, follow anti-bias best practices while interviewing, and work with our hiring team to ensure our goals are met.
We will also continue to seek out partnerships with nonprofits and community-driven organizations whose work aligns with our own and work together toward common goals.

Diversity and Inclusion Commitments from Previous Years

2022 Diversity & Inclusion Pledge

In 2021, the Simply Recipes team made significant progress toward diversifying not only our content, but also our team of writers, photographers, and full-time staff. We also conducted an anti-bias review of our entire library of published articles and took steps toward remediating the articles flagged in this review. Our efforts in 2022 will continue and expand upon the work started last year, with the goal of ensuring that Simply Recipes is a place of true inclusivity where everyone feels welcome at the table.

We dedicate 30% of our new recipes and other articles toward cuisines and world holidays that have been historically under-represented on Simply Recipes. To create this content, we will continue seeking out writers, photographers, and artists who are experts in these cuisines and can speak authentically about the food they know best.
In addition, we will leverage our social platforms and dedicate 30% of our social posting toward promoting this content and amplifying these stories. We will also build a diverse network of influencers for regular work on Instagram and Tiktok.
In our video work this year, we commit to 30% or more of our hands-in-pans videos representing people of color.
We will remediate the final 20% of our content (roughly 100 articles) flagged during last year’s anti-bias review. We expect remediation to be complete by mid-year.
We also remain dedicated to increasing the diversity of our full-time and part-time teams. We will actively recruit racially diverse candidates for all open roles, follow anti-bias best practices while interviewing, and work with our hiring team to ensure our goals are met.

Finally, as a food website that reaches millions of home cooks per month, Simply Recipes also has the power and responsibility to create positive social change. We will actively seek out partnerships with nonprofits and community-driven organizations and use our platform to further the work that they do.

The Simply Recipes team also wants to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are built into our DNA. This year, we will take steps toward this in the following ways:

Review our cuisine category pages and tags, establish best practices for how new content is categorized and tagged, and review and recategorize our existing library of content as needed.
Establish a regular review cycle with our anti-bias review board for all newly-created content.
Create an anti-bias best practices document for our recipe content, which can be referenced by editorial teams and writers.
Create photo guidelines and review processes for cuisine-specific recipes to ensure the cultural accuracy of these photos.
For our regular monthly social content, build a team of influencers that is representative and inclusive.
Also for our social content, grow a network of influencer specialists who we can tap into for specific projects, including holidays, cultural events, and social events.
Establish a Social Justice Action Plan for quicker, more thoughtful, more productive responses to breaking news events.
Collaborate on a list of BIPOC-owned businesses to support through our content.

2021 Anti-Racism Pledges

As we look forward to the next year at Simply Recipes, these are the goals we are focusing on:

We will conduct an anti-bias review of our entire library with a team of independent reviewers by the end of June 2021. By the end of 2021, we will have a plan in place for remediation of all articles identified during this review, and we will have begun addressing these concerns.

7/1/21 Update: ABRB review complete. The editorial team is now reviewing and determining next steps
10/1/21 Update: Remediation is complete on 60% of articles identified as needing work by the ABRB review.
12/31/21 Update: Remediation is underway on the remaining articles, which require deeper editing. This work will continue into 2022.

By the end of 2021, we will also establish a clear process for identifying, reporting, and addressing bias and cultural appropriation in our content.

12/31/21 Update: This process is documented HERE.

We pledge to increase the diversity of our full-time and part-time teams. We will actively recruit racially diverse candidates for every open role, follow anti-bias best practices when interviewing, and establish concrete hiring goals to help us meet our pledge.

12/31/21 Update: This goal is part of our ongoing work at Simply Recipes and is happening in partnership with our Dotdash Meredith HR team.

Editorially, we will establish a process to regularly recruit and hire writers from racially diverse backgrounds.

10/1/21 Update: We have established a new recruiting process with a monthly team meeting and goals for recruiting BIPOC candidates.

We will also invest at least 30% of our monthly budget toward creating content covering diverse world cuisines.

7/1/21 Update: Goal met at 30%
10/1/21 Update: Came in under goal for previous quarter; progress has been made on better defining our global cuisine content and establishing clearer procedures to make sure this goal is met.
12/31/21 Update: Goal met at 37%

By the end of 2021, at least 30% of our new recipe videos will represent people of color. Where we have people present in photos, we will also prioritize racial representation.

7/1/21 Update: Goal met in previous quarter
10/1/21 Update: No further new videos have been produced
12/31/21 Update: No further new videos have been produced

We will use our social media platforms to amplify diverse voices. By the end of 2021, at least 25% of our monthly takeovers and cooking demos on Instagram will feature BIPOC.

10/1/21 Update: A new social media editor has been hired and will be working toward this goal.
12/31/21: As of this date, we have not done enough takeovers or cooking demos to be statistically significant. This work will continue into 2022.

By the end of 2021, we commit to forming a partnership with a nonprofit organization that is aligned with our commitment toward fighting bias in the food space.

12/31/21: We felt short of our goal to actually form a partnership, but have been working with our D&I team to build the foundation for this work. We plan to pursue partnerships in 2022.

We will provide regular updates on the progress of these goals.

Recap of 2020 Pledge

Nearly a year ago, we shared our response to the Black Lives Matter protests happening around the United States, and set some pledges toward the diversity and inclusion work we can do as a site that reaches over 15 million home cooks every month. Today we want to follow up on those initial promises and share with you the specific goals we’ll be working on this coming year.

Here’s what has been happening since last year:

We made a team donation of $1000 to Campaign Zero, an organization dedicated to ending police violence.
We’ve adopted the diversity initiatives and hiring goals of our new parent company, Dotdash Meredith, which has ensured a diverse pool of applicants and interviewees with our new full-time and part-time hires. Our parent company also has robust internship and fellowship programs, in which we will begin participating this year.
Our full-time team has taken comprehensive training courses covering diversity in the workplace and unconscious bias.