Instacart, No Kid Hungry combat hunger, improve nutrition

Instacart, No Kid Hungry and Mercy Housing announced a partnership to expand access to nutritious food and nutrition education for families living in affordable housing communities located in food deserts, as well as study the health outcomes of such interventions.

Through the project, 200 families across three affordable housing communities in California and Georgia are receiving ongoing nutrition benefits and nutrition education from No Kid Hungry, free Instacart+ memberships and $40 per month in Instacart Health Fresh Funds grocery stipends for a full year. This includes 50 households each at two affordable housing communities in Esparto and Stockton, CA, and 100 households at a third community in Savannah, GA.

The White House highlighted the groundbreaking program in announcing new commitments from private and public sector leaders to advance the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.

“Every family in every community should have access to the nutritious food they need to thrive,” said Sarah Fleisch, senior director of policy research and development at Instacart. “With Instacart Health, we’re leveraging our technology and our reach to bridge food access gaps and improve nutrition security for those who need it most. We’re proud to partner with No Kid Hungry and Mercy Housing to help families living in food deserts and affordable housing communities get the food they need while studying the health benefits of these interventions.”

The one-year pilot program and corresponding research will evaluate whether select interventions improve nutrition security among families living in food deserts and seek to better understand the dietary health outcomes of those interventions. Through the program, independent researchers will examine how sustainable food access and nutrition education programs co-created with residents can affect, for example, food security levels, SNAP enrollment and utilization, and purchasing of fruits and vegetables. Results from the study are anticipated in late 2024, and could be formative in adopting broader scale intervention as part of the healthcare industry’s investment in housing as a social driver of health.

The program is an extension of No Kid Hungry’s multi-state Nutrition in Housing program, which is designed to increase food security, enrollment in and utilization of SNAP, consumption of fruits and vegetables, and improved dietary health.

“We’re excited to deepen our partnership with Instacart and Mercy Housing to reduce geographic inequities in food access and meet families right where they are,” said Lisa Davis, senior vice president at Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign. “With more than 13 million children in the United States living with hunger, this type of cross-sector collaboration is essential to breaking down the barriers that keep families on tight food budgets from accessing the nutrition they need to thrive.”