Instacart expands its fight against food insecurity this holiday season

At Instacart, we aim to create a world where everyone has access to nutritious food and essentials they need.

In pursuit of this goal, we recognize that as a company at the center of millions of households and people’s relationship with what they eat, we have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to do more. That’s why we launched Instacart Health two years ago: to provide tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes.

Since the launch of Instacart Health, we have created and furthered a number of impactful programs and partnerships. And we know that in order to see real, substantial, positive change, supporting communities at the local level is incredibly important. That’s why we’re proud to partner with nonprofit organizations, food banks, and local officials across the country to directly address hunger, including in cities like New York, where 1.2 million people are food insecure.

We know that for many families across the country, the holidays can present a number of challenges. Extra expenses during the holiday season – including festive family meals – can place added strain on budgets that are already stretched. That’s why we’re partnering with several New York organizations to help them reach more people and scale their impact, including:

• West Side Campaign Against Hunger: We’re partnering with the West Side Campaign Against Hunger to sponsor the Healthy Food Holiday Challenge for the third year in a row. We’ll match donations made to this challenge throughout the month of November.
• City Harvest: We’re hosting a turkey giveaway in partnership with City Harvest and Salt and Sea Mission in Gravesend on November 21 10:30a to 12:30p at the Stillwater Avenue distribution center, where 500 families will be able to receive a turkey and additional dinner supplies this Thanksgiving holiday. 
• Food Bank for NYC: We’ll host a turkey distribution from 10a to 12p, Saturday, November 23 for first 450 visitors alongside Councilwoman Sandy Nurse at her District Office on Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn

Our holiday initiatives in New York City build on our existing work in New York to help ensure more people have access to the healthy, nutritious food they need all year long, such as:

• In partnership with Common Threads, we support their Small Bites program in NYC schools using Instacart Health Care Carts to deliver fresh ingredients directly to classrooms. This innovative program teaches Pre-K to 8th grade students to make healthy snacks through hands-on, standards-aligned lessons that connect core subjects to real-life skills in healthy eating. 
• Our partnership with Northwell Health, New York’s largest health system, to give moms-to-be experiencing food insecurity access to fresh and nutritious food through Instacart. The program provides expectant moms with Instacart Health Fresh Funds, a stipend for nutritious food,and Northwell’s Healthy Choices Storefront with provider-recommended foods to shop from, offering the nutritional support and guidance moms and their babies need.
• Our advocacy in New York, actively championing policies that would expand SNAP benefits for individuals and families in the state. Most recently, we  partnered with Feeding New York State and a large coalition of food advocacy and industry groups, to advocate to increase the SNAP minimum for all qualifying New Yorkers, a meaningful step in affirming access to healthy food is a basic human right. The proposed expansion would bring vital support to nearly 3 million New Yorkers currently struggling to afford food.  
• Our year round Community Carts, where customers across the country can donate items directly to more than 120 local Feeding America partner food banks through the Instacart App, including City Harvest and Foodbank for New York.

New York is just one region where we have had the opportunity to help those in need. Broadly, we’re using our technology and scale to increase access to nutritious food through partnerships with food banks, nonprofits, health systems, health plans and nutrition organizations, we’re leveraging our platform to support communities across the country.

As we reflect on this holiday season, this time of giving reminds us of the importance of sharing the food we love. We’re honored to work with such incredible partners to support more individuals and families.

Casey Aden-Wansbury

Author

Casey is Vice President of Policy & Government Affairs at Instacart, where she leads Instacart’s Policy & Government Affairs Department. Prior to joining Instacart Casey spent five years at Airbnb, primarily as Director of Federal Affairs, where she led engagement with Congress, federal agencies and other major national policy stakeholders. Before Airbnb, Casey spent nearly twenty years working in federal government and national politics. As chief of staff to U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN), she served as the Senator’s lead strategic advisor, leading all aspects of the Senator’s legislative, communications, constituent and political operations during his first term. Casey also served as Communications Director to two U.S. Senators and has a total of 12 years of Senate experience. Outside of government, Casey served as Communications Director for the Children’s Defense Fund and held communications positions on three presidential campaigns, and three national political conventions.