From Food Access to Food as Medicine: A Policy Path Forward

At Instacart, we believe everyone should have access to healthy, nutritious food — every person, every family, every community. But today, far too many Americans still struggle to put good food on the table. According to the USDA, forty-seven million people live in food-insecure households, including millions of children, while rates of chronic diet-related diseases continue to rise. These twin challenges — food insecurity and poor nutrition — require practical, bipartisan policy solutions.

That’s why we’re releasing our new Instacart Health Policy Agenda, a renewed roadmap that reflects both the progress we’ve made and the work still ahead. It outlines Instacart’s top advocacy priorities on these important issues — grounded in evidence, shaped by experience, and focused on impact. Across every recommendation is a simple idea: nutritious food is fundamental to good health.

Building on Progress

Since launching Instacart Health and our first policy agenda three years ago, we’ve helped expand access to nutritious food and advance new models that bring healthy eating closer to home. We became the first online grocery marketplace to accept SNAP benefits in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. in 2023. Through our work with Partnership for a Healthier America, we’ve helped deliver nearly 10 million servings of fruits and vegetables to families. And we’ve worked with leading researchers, health systems, and advocacy groups to study and scale what works — from grocery delivery programs serving food deserts to medically-tailored grocery interventions.

Those partnerships have demonstrated that technology and private sector commitment, when paired with smart public policy, can expand access to nutritious food and help families make healthier choices. The next step: Ensuring those solutions aren’t temporary — they’re permanent, scalable, and integrated into the systems that shape how Americans eat and live.

That’s why we’re focused on two specific policy areas where we believe smart reforms can have the greatest impact: modernizing food assistance programs and integrating nutrition into healthcare.

Strengthening and Modernizing Food Assistance

Federal nutrition programs like SNAP and WIC are the backbone of America’s food security infrastructure. But they need to evolve to meet the realities of modern life. Families using these programs should be able to shop the same way everyone else does — online, with choice, convenience, and dignity.

That’s why our new agenda calls for making the SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot permanent, improving the efficiency of certification processes, and strengthening state-level SNAP benefits to ensure families can afford the food they need.

We’re also urging policymakers to modernize and bring the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) online — for example, streamlining retailer enrollment, standardizing technology for online payments, and expanding eligibility for mothers and children.

Finally, no conversation about nutrition security is complete without addressing the needs of children. We’re calling for expanded universal school meal programs and encouraging states to opt into the Summer EBT program, ensuring every child has access to healthy meals year-round — not just during the school day. These changes recognize that hunger doesn’t take a summer break.

Integrating Nutrition into Healthcare

At the same time, America’s healthcare system is increasingly recognizing what many of us have long known: food is medicine. Diet-related diseases are among the leading drivers of healthcare costs and poor outcomes, yet nutritious food remains underutilized as a treatment and prevention tool.

We’re calling for federal and state policymakers to accelerate progress by integrating medically supportive food interventions into Medicare and Medicaid. That means encouraging Medicare Advantage plans to include produce prescriptions and medically-tailored groceries as supplemental benefits — and ensuring those services are counted as quality-improving care under CMS rules. It also means helping Medicaid programs expand coverage for food as medicine services through Section 1115 waivers and In Lieu of Services authority. These are smart, bipartisan reforms that can lower costs and improve health outcomes.

At the same time, we’re calling for continued federal leadership through pilot programs, guidance, and cross-agency collaboration. Initiatives from CMS, HHS, and the Veterans Health Administration can help build the evidence base and infrastructure for nutrition interventions that reach more Americans.

A Shared Responsibility

Across both priority areas — strengthening food assistance and integrating nutrition into healthcare — our message carries a common theme: pilots that work should not remain pilots. Programs that have proven effective should be made permanent and scaled nationally. That’s how innovation becomes enduring impact.

Importantly, none of this work happens in a vacuum. Progress depends on collaboration — between policymakers, advocates, researchers, healthcare leaders, and companies like Instacart. As we look ahead, our goal remains the same: to make it easier for every household to put healthy food on the table. That means continually innovating, testing, and scaling what works — strengthening programs that deliver results and building new bridges between food and health.

We’re proud to continue this work alongside policy leaders, researchers, and advocates across the country who share our belief that food policy is health policy. Together, we can create a future where every family has the food, information, and tools they need to live healthier lives.

Learn more at instacart.com/health and download the full policy agenda here