Instacart is now accepting food stamp payments across 50 U.S. states.
Last week, on the heels of the company announcing that Alaska was the latest state to accept Electronic Benefits Transfer for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (EBT SNAP) payments, Instacart also revealed that more than 10,000 stores are accepting SNAP. The company first introduced SNAP as a payment method in 2020. With more than 42 million people enrolled in EBT SNAP, the expansion means that Instacart can now service roughly 12% of the U.S. population.
According to Dani Dudeck, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Instacart, this is in line with the company’s mission to bring healthy and affordable food to more communities. It also marks the fulfillment of a new health and nutrition initiative launched in September 2022, in partnership with the USDA, which outlines a goal to extend these benefits to its more than 650 grocery partners by 2030.
Driving Accessibility Via Prepaid Debit Cards
Using prepaid programs to make healthy food more accessible for low-income populations is certainly not a new concept. In June, About Fresh announced that it would help Medicaid-supported individuals get access to healthier food options. Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Prepaid at Javelin Strategy & Research, covered how About Fresh’s partnership with the FIS Filtered Spend program would give Fresh Connect cardholders the ability to have eligible healthy food items deducted from their total spend if they used the program funded prepaid cardat checkout. Healthcare providers financially support this effort in order to reduce medical expenses for patients who experience food insecurity.
According to research put out last year from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, many are benefiting from these government prepaid programs . The SNAP program has been credited with lowering heart disease risk, lower obesity, and better overall health.
And in an effort to make SNAP even more accessible, the USDA has been piloting contactless mobile payments in five states. At a time where a large portion of consumers are still underbanked, these initiatives aim to better serve these communities .