Good Food, Real Impact: Expanding Our Work with PHA to Reach More Families

Instacart is committed to helping every family put nutritious food on the table. Today, I'm proud to share that we're expanding our work with Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) to bring the Good Food at Home program, powered by Instacart Health Fresh Funds, to nearly 1,000 additional families across the country.

Starting this month, we've expanded the Good Food at Home program with PHA and new local partners to Detroit, Michigan; Sacramento, California; and Washington, D.C. These cities join the growing list of communities where we're making produce more accessible - and helping families build healthy habits that last. This next iteration of the Good Food at Home program will extend from three months to eight months to better understand how sustained access can inform long-term healthy eating habits.

A Shared Commitment to Access

Our partnership with PHA began with a shared belief: everyone deserves access to affordable, nutritious food. But we know that accessing fresh food isn't always easy. For families living in food deserts and those without reliable transportation, getting fresh groceries can too often feel out of reach. When we began our partnership, we made a joint, nationwide commitment to connect under-resourced communities with 10 million servings of produce by the end of 2025.

To address this problem, we teamed up with PHA to launch Good Food at Home supported by Fresh Funds - grocery stipends that participating families can use on Instacart to buy fruits and vegetables with delivery straight to their door. Instacart reaches more than 98% of U.S. households - including 95% in food deserts - helping remove key barriers to access to nutritious food.

Since our partnership began, the positive impact of our work with PHA has been clear:

• We've expanded the program to more than 10 cities across the U.S., offering thousands of under-resourced families access to fresh and nutritious food.
• In an assessment conducted with the more than 1,000 participants from Chicago, New Orleans, and Wichita, families used their Fresh Funds to purchase over 130,000 servings of fruits and vegetables over three months, with the average order including 55 servings - showing that when affordability and accessibility are no longer obstacles, families choose to eat healthier.¹
• In dedicated focus groups with the most recent participants from Chicago, New Orleans, and Wichita, parents told us that they introduced their kids to new fruits and vegetables, and saw lasting changes in their family's eating habits as a result of the program.
• The majority of program participants said the initiative helped them establish healthier eating patterns for their family.

"We have cut down about 75% of the snacks in our house and have been eating fruits and vegetables… and now my kids are asking me, 'Hey mom, can I have an apple?'"

Enhanced Program Design

In Detroit, D.C. and Sacramento, each participating household will receive $80 in monthly Instacart Health Fresh Funds along with an Instacart+ membership, enabling them to shop for fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables and canned vegetables from a wide array of local retailers available through the Instacart marketplace. And, for the first time, participants in these cities will receive their Fresh Funds for eight months instead of three allowing us to better understand how sustained access to healthy foods can shape long-term habits.

The latest iteration of the Good Food at Home program is designed to fill the critical summer and holiday hunger gaps, when school meal programs are often unavailable to the kids that depend on them. And while the structure is consistent across cities, each local program is tailored to meet the unique needs of the community through partnerships with trusted nonprofit organizations.

In Sacramento, we've teamed up with the Health Education Council to support 350 families - primarily SNAP participants enrolled in local nutrition education programming. In Detroit, Focus: HOPE is helping us reach 350 families through its existing food access, workforce, and early childhood education programs. And in Washington D.C., we're working with D.C. Hunger Solutions to support 225 families - building on the success of a 2023 pilot while expanding outreach through a coalition of community-based partners.

Together with PHA and these local nonprofit leaders, we're creating a more resilient food access infrastructure that delivers real support to families and drives meaningful, measurable impact.

A Proven Strategy

We've helped develop a playbook - and we've shown that offering access through online grocery works for families across the country. We've seen that when local community organizations partner with Instacart to provide not just funds, but also education, reminders, and a convenient shopping experience, families don't just buy more produce - they build lasting habits.

We've also seen strong engagement from families who had never used Instacart before. The majority of participants described the enrollment process as easy and appreciated the flexibility and reliability of delivery - especially in neighborhoods where healthy grocery options are limited.

Food is one of the most powerful tools we have to improve health. Chronic diseases tied to diet continue to be on the rise yet millions of Americans still lack access to affordable, nutritious food.² Through Good Food at Home, we're showing that technology, strategic partnerships and targeted support can help solve one of our most pressing public health challenges.

Looking Ahead

At Instacart, we're proud to be building the infrastructure and partnerships to support better nutrition - at scale and in real time. But we also know we can't do this alone.

It takes cross-sector collaboration to make a lasting impact. Public health leaders, local advocates, technology partners, and community voices are around our table, helping to create meaningful, lasting change. We're honored to work alongside PHA, and we're energized by what we've accomplished together so far. This work is about giving every family - no matter their income or location - the opportunity to thrive.

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1. Source: Partnership for a Healthier America, "Good Food at Home Summer 2024 Program Evaluation," presentation to Instacart, April 28, 2025. ↩︎
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024, October 4). About chronic diseases. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/about/index.html ↩︎