Instacart and Partnership for a Healthier America expand nutrition program

After a pilot in Indianapolis the progam will be launching in Denver, Milwaukee, Englewood, and D.C.

Last year, delivery service Instacart debuted Instacart Health, which involved a series of new products, partnerships, and policy commitments, with the aim of making sure that every person has access to nutritious food.

Among those initiatives was Fresh Funds, which allows organizations to provide funds for people to buy nutritious food from grocery retailers on the Instacart App, and the launch of a pilot in Indianapolis with Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) to expand its “Good Food for All” nutrition access and incentive program.

This week the company announced the results of that pilot, as well as as the expansion of the partnership with PHA.

Launched in February, the first phase of the Indianapolis Good Food for All program provided families with pre-packaged boxes with approximately 50 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables weekly for 10 weeks. During the second phase, families were given $50 in produce credits per month for three months.

Results from the program showed 80% of respondents preferring produce credits over produce boxes, while 79% of those that received produce credits reporting that they planned to continue to eat more fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, 78% said produce credits allowed them to purchase more fruits and vegetables than they could usually afford, and the same percentage said that produce credits helped their family build a healthy habit.

Instacart also revealed that its participants had higher satisfaction scores than those who received brick-and-mortar store credit, with many noting they favored the selection and choice available on the Instacart marketplace. Families that received Fresh Funds were also more than 10 times more likely to use all of their funds..

As a result of those numbers, Instacart and PHA will now scale Good Food for All to four additional cities: 200 families in Denver, Colorado; 200 families in Englewood, New Jersey; 225 families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and 500 families in Washington D.C. In each city, Instacart and PHA will give families $60/month of Fresh Funds to purchase produce from local grocers available on the Instacart marketplace.

The ultimate goal for Instacart and PHA is to deliver 10 million servings of fruits and vegetables to underserved communities by 2025.

Instacart Health initiatives

Other initiatives in the Instacart Health program include Care Carts, which are designed to give healthcare providers and caregivers the ability to order groceries on behalf of someone else; for example, a clinician might want to deliver groceries for a patient’s prescribed meal plan.

The company also launched Health Tags, which let customers view up to 23 item-level labels, including low-salt, low-sugar, keto, gluten-free, while they shop on Instacart.

Instacart also unveiled its Instacart Health Policy Agenda, which outlines the company’s top three policy priorities and new advocacy commitments to help expand access to nutritious food and improve health outcomes. That will involve working with policymakers, researchers, nonprofit leaders, private sector partners, and others to help shape and enact policies at the federal, state, and local level with the aim of modernizing food assistance programs to increase equitable access to nutritious food; increasing the availability of affordable, nutritious food in underserved urban and rural areas; and providing equitable access to health-tailored groceries and food prescription programs.

In addition, the company also partnered with the  Biden administration earlier this year on the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities, which encourages organizations and communities to participate by making bold and impactful commitments. Instacart announced it would be partnering with Boston Children’s Hospital, along with at least four other major health care providers to create virtual food pharmacies and other food is medicine interventions using Instacart Health products within he next six months.

(Image source: instacart.com)