The Power of Public-Private Partnership: Why Instacart and HHS are Teaming Up to Scale the Food As Medicine Movement

At Instacart, we believe in the power of food as medicine, because we know more nutritious food can lead to better health. That’s why we’ve been working closely with nonprofit, government, and private-sector leaders to develop new technologies, advance pioneering research, and advocate for public policies that make it as easy for providers to prescribe food as it is to prescribe medicine.

It’s also why we’re especially thrilled to announce our newest public-private partnership.

Today, Instacart launched a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support and scale food as medicine interventions, including by increasing access to nutritious food and offering the tools needed to support better health and well-being for individuals and families across the country. Through the partnership, Instacart will work with the agency to identify new opportunities to support food as medicine programs, research, outreach, and policy priorities that improve health outcomes and health equity across the United States.

More specifically, our new public-private partnership — which we announced at an HHS summit today in Washington, D.C. — focuses on four pillars:

• Advancing and leveraging food as medicine research design and findings to produce evidence on clinical health outcomes, cost effectiveness and optimal program design;
• Identifying food as medicine implementation strategies through policy, regulatory and public funding frameworks;
• Optimizing communication to educate the public about the value of food as medicine interventions and resources;
• Ensuring food as medicine interventions support diverse individuals and communities, with a focus on health equity.

The partnership continues to build out our company’s Instacart Health initiative, through which we’re leveraging our technology, partnerships, research, and advocacy to expand access to nutritious food, inspire healthy choices, and scale food as medicine programs. 

As part of that work, we’ve developed new technologies and infrastructure to power food as medicine programs, including produce prescription initiatives and other nutrition interventions. Our company shares HHS’s commitment to improving health through the power of food — and we’re in this for the long run. We’re proud to launch this public-private partnership with HHS to increase access to nutritious food and ensure more people have the tools they need to support their health, and we encourage others to join this cross-sector work. Together, we can ensure the food as medicine movement reaches every family and community across the country.