Instacart expands nutritious food access for virtual care provider
Instacart is teaming up with virtual cardiometabolic services platform Vida.
Vida, which provides clinical services and support to help manage metabolic instability, is partnering with Instacart to expand access to nutritious food for its members nationwide through the grocery technology company’s Instacart Health initiative.
[READ MORE: Instacart offers health-driven shopping options]
The collaboration enables Vida members to utilize Instacart Health Fresh Funds category-specific grocery stipends directly with Instacart for same-day delivery. Vida pairs clinical expertise with personalized nutrition support across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Vida's registered dietitians develop nutritional guidelines and meal plans incorporating guidance across more than 25 cultural and ethnic backgrounds and accounting for constraints like budget and local store availability.
"At its core, Instacart is a platform built for access to nutritious food, and our Health tools – like Fresh Funds – allow us to connect food and health programs at scale,” said Sarah Mastrorocco, VP and GM of health at Instacart. “Through our partnership with Vida, members managing their cardiometabolic health can now receive Fresh Funds stipends to spend on Instacart to act on the expert guidance Vida’s care team provides. Helping turn trusted advice into action is what Instacart Health was built to do.”
Future phases of this partnership will enable Vida's meal plans to be directly shoppable through Instacart and will also explore employer subsidization of food access as part of enterprise benefit offerings, building toward a model in which personalized nutrition support and grocery access are seamlessly connected components of cardiometabolic care.
"Building healthier habits takes more than information; it requires thoughtful, culturally relevant guidance and access to good food,” said Amy Mushlin, chief clinical and member service officer at Vida Health. “By partnering with Instacart, the guidance dietitians and coaches provide is now more immediately actionable for members to purchase groceries, making it easier for people to make impactful changes in their lives.”
Instacart has entered partnerships with a number of other public entities, non-profits, and health care providers and to provide access to Fresh Funds. These include the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Montgomery County, Md., the city of Columbia, S.C., and NationsBenefits.
Based in San Francisco, Instacart partners with more than 2,200 retail banners – representing nearly 100,000 stores across North America.
