Unite Us and Instacart revealed a new collaboration that links health-system care-coordination activities with grocery-benefit services, seeking to simplify the rollout and scaling of food-as-medicine initiatives for providers nationwide.
The partnership brings together Unite Us’ referral platform and Instacart’s delivery service, allowing stipends to be redeemed directly on the Instacart app or website for those receiving Medicare and Medicaid grocery benefits.
The system can complement existing programs such as SNAP and WIC by connecting eligible individuals to nutrition benefits and subsidized delivery.
According to Adrienne Sherk, Associate Vice President of National Partnerships at Unite Us, the program was inspired by the need to address execution and visibility gaps in real-world nutrition programs.
Sherk detailed the gaps: nutrition benefits are difficult to scale, their outcomes are hard to measure, and fragmented systems limit both scale and local impact.
The companies say that their combined system can help payers, medical providers, and government systems identify people who qualify for nutrition assistance, distribute grocery benefits, and measure how those benefits are used.
A 2025 report found that nearly 48 million people experience food insecurity, particularly in rural and underserved urban communities.
Addressing nutritional needs is one way that health organizations can improve whole-person care, as food insecurity is a major driver of poor health outcomes.
Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of health at Instacart, said that connecting Instacart Health with the Unite Us network can help people access nutritious food through the organizations and care teams they already know and trust.
Whether the connected approach produces better participation in grocery benefit programs or better health outcomes will depend on how organizations deploy the program and on whether eligible members actually use the benefits.
The partnership targets the practical hurdles that complicate efforts to bring food-as-medicine programs to larger populations by linking eligibility, benefit delivery, and outcome measurement.
