Instacart Partners With Northwell Health To Bolster Food Access

Dive Brief:

• Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York state, is partnering with Instacart, to expand access to nutritious foods and help prompt healthy lifestyle choices. 
• Northwell will leverage Instacart’s platform to support programs that address “social determinants of health,” such as food access and transportation. The first program under the partnership will focus on improving access to nutritious food for expecting mothers in Black and Brown communities who are food insecure. 
• Instacart has been building out its food-as-medicine arm over the past few years, rolling out digital solutions that link to health and hunger initiatives and expanding partnerships to improve health equity.

Dive Insight:

Instacart and Northwell Health will initiate numerous health and wellness-focused programs, specifically targeting maternal health, youth nutrition education and employee wellness, according to an Instacart blog post. 

The first program to launch from the partnership integrates Instacart Health tools into Northwell’s Maternal Outcomes and Morbidity Collaborative. Select customers will be able to use Instacart Health Fresh Funds, its online grocery stipends, and Northwell’s Healthy Choices Storefront on the Instacart platform to access nutrition guidance and other support throughout their pregnancies. 

“The collaboration with Instacart is part of our comprehensive community health effort and will provide tools and resources to access nutritious foods for our staff, patients and communities,” Debbie Salas-Lopez, senior vice president of Northwell’s Office of Community Wellness and Population Health, said in a statement. 

Earlier this year, Instacart announced a new public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that aims to find opportunities to support food-as-medicine programs, research and policy priorities. 

This type of work isn’t new for Instacart. Last year, the grocery technology company introduced several digital solutions to further health-focused efforts such as providing health providers, health systems and hospitals the ability to scale food-as-medicine programs through virtual storefronts and other tools.