Dive Brief:

• Instacart announced Tuesday it has linked up with Wellness West, a coalition of Chicago’s health and safety-net institutions, to offer grocery stipends to people on the West Side of Chicago who are facing barriers to healthy dietary options 
• Instacart will offer a $79 monthly grocery stipend through its Fresh Funds to Wellness West members for delivery orders of nutritious foods. 
• The announcement builds upon Instacart’s efforts to bolster its food-as-medicine initiatives as well as expand its reach to more consumers. It also comes shortly after a temporary pandemic boost in SNAP benefits ended. 

Dive Insight:

Consumers benefiting from the partnership will be able to order foods, such as fresh and frozen produce, for delivery via Instacart and can combine the stipend with other food benefit programs, like SNAP or eligible supplemental health benefits. Allowing the use of multiple benefits will give consumers the ability to complete a full grocery shop in one order, Instacart noted.

Instacart and Wellness West are working to identify and engage small, local grocery stores on Chicago’s West Side that can offer online grocery ordering and delivery through Instacart, per the announcement, which noted that grocers of varying sizes have struggled recently to build sustainable business models in underserved areas throughout Chicago.

Whole Foods Market left the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side last fall after six years. Meanwhile, Walmart unveiled plans earlier this year to close half of its stores in Chicago with three of the four to-be-shuttered locations in the city’s South and West Side neighborhoods, CNN reported. 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson praised the partnership between Instacart and Wellness West, saying in a statement that his administration is looking to advance more innovative solutions and support public-private partnerships to tackle food inequities. 

Wellness West’s more than 15,000 Health Risk Assessments of vulnerable populations on the West Side over the last year found that 34% said they were running out of food or worried about running out of food in the last year due to not having enough money. A quarter said they needed transportation assistance.

“[The partnership] comes at a crucial time as SNAP households have seen a significant cut in monthly allotments this past year,” Illinois Retail Merchants Association President and CEO Rob Karr said in a statement. 

Wellness West serves the health equity needs of up to 200,000 uninsured and Medicaid-insured West Side residents diagnosed with at least one of six specific medical conditions. For Wellness West, the Instacart partnership is part of a broader plan to stabilize hypertension and diabetes among its participant populations — chronic conditions that disproportionately impact poor and minority communities, per an emailed announcement. 

Instacart noted that it reaches 93% of food desert residents and nearly 95% of households enrolled in SNAP in the U.S. 

“Increasing nutrition security is a core focus for Instacart Health because we know nutrition and health are deeply intertwined. ...  Instacart can help bridge the gap and deliver nutritious foods to more people in support of their health and well-being,” Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of Instacart Health, said in a company blog post on Tuesday. 

The grocery technology company already has rolled out its Fresh Funds to several communities across the U.S. through partnerships with healthcare and nonprofits as part of the sweeping health-focused initiative called Instacart Health that debuted last September. 

In March, Instacart announced it teamed up with nonprofit Partnership for a Healthier America to launch a new nutrition security program for families in need that offers Fresh Funds and a complimentary Instacart+ membership for several months. Later that month, Instacart announced a partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital and at least four other major healthcare providers to create virtual food pharmacies and other food-is-medicine interventions. 

Earlier this month, Instacart revealed an upcoming study with Kaiser Permanente that will explore nutritious food access by giving participants Fresh Funds to shop for food on a virtual storefront using medically tailored nutrition advice.