Uber Eats to accept federal benefits payments in late 2024
The online delivery platform of Uber Technologies Inc. is entering a partnership to enable processing of SNAP EBT payments.
Uber Eats is teaming up with San Francisco-based payments company Forage to begin accepting federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, often called food stamps, and electronic benefit transfer (EBT) as payment for eligible orders beginning in late 2024.
Forage is a dedicated EBT payments company offering software as well as a dedicated team of in-house experts to guide platforms and retailers through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) authorization process. To accept federal benefits payments.
"At Uber, we believe healthy foods should be accessible to all," said Karl Hebert, VP of payments, risk and identity at Uber. "We are excited to partner with Forage to provide our customers the same seamless payments experience they've become accustomed to on Uber when using their SNAP benefits."
"We’re incredibly excited to partner with Uber Eats to bring online purchasing and delivery to more SNAP recipients," said Forage co-founder and CEO, Ofek Lavian. "We know that accepting SNAP benefits online is incredibly important for millions of Americans and are extremely proud that through our partnership, Uber will be able to unlock EBT acceptance for all retailers on their platform and help more Americans put food on their table."
Instacart, DoorDash take federal benefits
Two of Uber Eats’ chief rivals, Instacart and DoorDash, already accept SNAP and EBT payments for some eligible orders. Instacart currently offers online SNAP acceptance from more than 170 retail banners spanning more than 14,000 stores and all 50 states, reaching 96% of SNAP households in the U.S.
Instacart recently began accepting SNAP benefits for same-day delivery of eligible purchases from Food City, Gordon Food Service, Hy-Vee, Schnucks, and additional Kroger banners including Baker’s, City Market, Dillons, Fred Meyer, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, King Soopers, Marianos, Metro Market, Pick n’ Save, Smith’s and QFC.
Meanwhile, DoorDash recently expanded the number of retailers it accepts SNAP/EBT payments with to include ACME Markets, Food City, Hy-Vee, Jewel-Osco, Kings Food Markets, Pavilions, Randalls, Shaw’s, Sprouts Farmers Market, Star Market, Stater Bros. Markets, Tom Thumb and Vons.
With the addition of these new grocers, over 6,000 locations nationwide will support SNAP/EBT payment capabilities on DoorDash for on-demand delivery of eligible grocery items.