Northwell Health and Instacart are partnering to provide food and nutrition services to Northwell’s patients, the companies announced on Wednesday.
New Hyde Park, New York-based Northwell Health is a health system with 21 hospitals, 900 outpatient facilities and 12,000 affiliated physicians. Instacart, based in San Francisco, is a grocery technology company. Its healthcare division provides access to healthy food and partners with healthcare organizations for food as medicine programs.
Northwell is leveraging Instacart Health’s tools to address social determinants of health among its patients and support its ‘Food as Health’ programs. To start, Northwell is launching the Northwell Healthy Choices virtual storefront, which will provide curated healthy foods chosen by the health system’s nutrition services team, according to Dr. Debbie Salas-Lopez, Northwell’s senior vice president of community and population health.
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The health system is also integrating Instacart Health tools into its Center for Maternal Health Maternal Outcomes and Morbidity Collaborative (MOMS). Focusing on Black and Brown communities, Northwell will offer expectant mothers nutrition guidance through the virtual storefront and Instacart Health Fresh Funds (online grocery stipends). Studies show that women who eat a nutritious diet during pregnancy tend to have healthier babies and encounter fewer pregnancy-related complications.
“By partnering with Instacart, Northwell’s Center for MOMS is making it easier for moms-to-be to follow their provider’s expert nutrition advice to help reduce the risk of pregnancy-related complications and improve health outcomes,” said Sarah Mastrorocco, vice president and general manager of Instacart Health, in an email.
Northwell chose to launch this partnership with Instacart to give its patients more options for healthy food.
“As Northwell’s ‘Food as Health’ programming has evolved, we realize that traditional approaches, like providing patients with bags or boxes of produce, are good, but choice especially in a culturally diverse region — like Northwell’s NYC metro region service area — is crucial,” Salas-Lopez said in an email. “The ability for individuals and families to purchase healthy food that meets their dietary, cultural and personal preferences, is based on their provider’s guidance, and is delivered to their door, is a game changer in creating sustainable transformation of eating habits to healthier options.”
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Northwell is currently developing additional programs that use Instacart’s tools. Salas-Lopez said the goal of the partnership is to “provide tools and resources to access nutritious foods for our staff, patients and communities that will ultimately ‘raise their health,’ improve eating habits, maintain a healthy weight and reduce chronic conditions.”
Instacart declined to share the financial model of the partnership. The grocery technology company has launched several partnerships with healthcare organizations in the last year, including NationsBenefits, DispatchHealth, Mount Sinai and Alignment. Other companies providing healthy food support include Season Health, NourishedRx and Fay.
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