Dive Brief:
- Instacart is extending the reach of its grocery stipends through its tie-up with Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), the company announced Wednesday.
- The grocery technology company and PHA recently expanded their Good Food at Home program by providing Instacart Health’s grocery stipends to three new cities: Chicago; New Orleans; and Wichita, Kansas, Instacart said. The program will become available in an unspecified number of additional cities this fall.
- The growth of the grocery stipend program follows Instacart and PHA reaching the milestone of connecting people with over 5 million servings of fruits and vegetables through the initiative.
Dive Insight:
The Good Food at Home program offers Instacart’s grocery stipends, called Fresh Funds, and a complimentary Instacart+ membership to participants in “under-resourced communities,” Instacart said.
The addition of the three cities will provide Fresh Funds to more than 550 families in Chicago, 250 families in New Orleans and 250 families in Wichita.
Early last year in Indianapolis, PHA tested with Instacart the feasibility of a produce credit model, with Instacart sharing at the end of last year that the trial “successfully proved the efficacy of produce stipends like Fresh Funds to address food insecurity.”
At the end of 2023, Instacart and PHA launched Good Food at Home in Denver; Englewood, New Jersey; Milwaukee; and Washington, D.C., giving more than 1,100 families produce credits for three months along with an Instacart+ membership with free delivery. The program offers $60 per month in Fresh Funds per family for three months.
Instacart and PHA are halfway to reaching their goal of providing families with 10 million servings of produce through their program by 2025 as the grocery technology company continues its hunger-fighting efforts. That goal is one of the commitments the company made during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in 2022.
Over the past few years, Instacart has taken several steps to address food affordability and access. In 2022, the company announced Instacart Health, a health-focused business initiative aimed at tackling three main areas: nutrition security, food as medicine and making healthy options easier to access. Later that year, Instacart began offering its Instacart+ membership at a discounted rate to SNAP participants and launched a new feature called Community Carts that makes it easier for people to donate groceries through the Instacart app.
Last year, Instacart debuted initiatives to improve food accessibility for patients and seniors and unveiled plans to scale its food-as-medicine program with tools for health providers by working with Boston Children’s Hospital and other major health care providers.
Instacart noted in the Wednesday announcement that it offers online SNAP acceptance from nearly 180 retail banners across more than 30,000 stores, reaching nearly 98% of U.S. households enrolled in SNAP.
