Dive Brief:
- DoorDash plans to offer SNAP online purchasing for grocery delivery in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico by 2025, the company announced Friday.
- The third-party e-commerce provider also said it will grow the availability of produce on its marketplace and promote more healthy products by that same timeframe.
- The new efforts, announced on the day of the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities Kickoff, expands on commitments the company made last year in connection to the Biden administration’s Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September.
Dive Insight:
DoorDash said it will work with its grocery partners to enable SNAP purchasing. Offering the payment option will reduce accessibility barriers to getting groceries, as well as boost convenience for SNAP users, DoorDash said in the announcement.
DoorDash is following in the footsteps of Instacart and other e-commerce providers that have worked to make it possible for SNAP participants to use their benefits to buy groceries online.
Alongside the SNAP online purchasing rollout, DoorDash is looking to make healthy food choices top of mind for shoppers with promotions in its marketplace. To expand the produce availability on its marketplace, the e-commerce provider said it will team up with grocers across the U.S. and also increase healthy SKUs in its DashMarts.
Last September, DoorDash announced a series of partnerships with mayors across the U.S. focused on food access during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. DoorDash said Friday it has already started to work with almost 20 mayors in cities including Oakland, California; Denver; Tampa, Florida; and Albany, New York. That work is looking at how those local communities can use DoorDash Community Credits, technology and infrastructure to broaden food access.
The company highlighted in the Friday announcement that it has focused on boosting food access for years, pointing to its Project DASH, which started in 2018 to connect food banks and other social service organizations to food and other important resources via the logistics technology used by DoorDash merchant partners.
DoorDash was among a dozen companies, non-profits, philanthropic groups and local elected-officials that made commitments or updates to previous ones in conjunction with the White House kickoff event last week. Instacart announced plans to help scale food as medicine by providing digital tools to health providers, along with new advertising capabilities and four new research studies with academic institutions.
