Grocery delivery service instagram unveiled Instacart Health, a new multi-pronged initiative designed to give customers better access to nutritious food.
Instacart Health was launched at the White House Hunger, Nutrition and Health Conference, and features new products, strategic partnerships, cutting-edge research and policy advocacy engagements. The plan is defined by three key pillars, according to the company: nutritional security, simplified health and food as medicine.
“Instacart has become a fixture in millions of homes, putting us at the heart of people’s relationship with food, and therefore, their health. We have a responsibility to use the power of our platform, our products and our partnerships to expand access to nutritious food and improve health outcomes,” said Instacart CEO Fiji Simo. “At Instacart, we are developing the technologies that can help many organizations – healthcare providers, insurers, non-profits, employers and healthcare experts – to give more people access to fresh, nutritious food with dignity, speed and convenience.
With the launch of Instacart Health, Instacart announced several new products, partnerships and commitments:
Strengthening Nutrition Incentives and Dietary Prescriptions with New Funds
Fresh Funds is a new product that allows any organization, including nonprofits, insurance companies and insurers, and employers, to give people funds to buy nutritious food from retailers in feed on the Instacart app. With Fresh Funds, organizations will be able to dictate and limit spending on certain food categories, like produce, to encourage healthy habits and give people access to healthy foods that might otherwise be too expensive.
Instacart plans to launch a Fresh Funds pilot with Partnership for a Healthier America, a leading nonprofit organization working to transform the food landscape in pursuit of health equity. The pilot will begin in Indianapolis, Indiana, with the goal of expanding nationwide in 2023.
Improving collaborative care with new care carts
Instacart also announced a new product called Care Carts, designed to give healthcare providers and caregivers the ability to order groceries on someone else’s behalf. Whether it’s a healthcare provider delivering groceries and medical supplies to patients after discharge from the hospital or clinicians delivering groceries for the prescribed meal plan to a patient, Care Carts is a new way to send groceries. Several organizations are already using this new feature.