Instacart and Military Family Advisory Network Partner to Provide Nutritious Food and Free Grocery Delivery to Military Families Following Base Transition
Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America and Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN), a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting military and veteran families, today announced a new partnership to provide free groceries and delivery to military families following relocation to a new base.
Through the initiative at US Army Fort Cavazos, Instacart and MFAN will provide more than 100 military families with $100 in monthly Instacart Health Fresh Funds stipends for three months upon relocation to the Army base in central Texas. Families can use the Fresh Funds stipends to purchase nutritious food and other essentials from local retailers including, ALDI and more. The Fresh Funds can also be used to cover the cost of delivery to help busy military families spend more time settling into their new communities and less time traveling to the store.
Designed to help ease the transition and resettlement process for military families relocating to Fort Cavazos, the program is part of a broader pilot MFAN recently announced to support military family well being.
“MFAN believes in bringing the best partners together to meet the data-informed needs of the military families we serve. As we identify dignified, scalable and measurable solutions to support those experiencing food insecurity, there was no better solution than Instacart and the Fresh Funds stipend,” said MFAN President and Executive Director Shannon Razsadin. “We know that food insecurity is a symptom of broader challenges. Through the MFANetwork, together alongside Instacart and our other partners, we will connect families to a network of support while simultaneously ensuring their family has immediate access to healthy food.”
The program is also part of Instacart’s and MFAN’s continuing efforts to advance the White House’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. As part of that strategy to end hunger and reduce the incidence of diet-related disease, the White House challenged public and private sector organizations to work together to expand access to nutritious food for communities that have historically faced high rates of food insecurity, including the military community.
One in six military and veteran families experience food insecurity or hunger, according to MFAN’s latest research, higher than the national average (12 percent). Among enlisted families, that number climbs to nearly one in four families. Texas is among the states that MFAN’s 2021 survey respondents reported the highest frequencies of military and veteran family food insecurity (26.1 percent).
The organization’s research also found that frequent and sometimes sudden permanent change of station (PCS) moves cause even more strain on families, including financial stress due to moving costs and cost-of-living changes.
“Instacart is on a mission to help every family access the nutritious food they need, and that includes families who sacrifice so much for our country every single day,” said Laura Anderson, Director of Social Impact at Instacart. “With food insecurity rates rising in the military community and relocation demands contributing added stress and strain for families, we’re proud to partner with MFAN and use our Instacart Health technology to help ensure members of the military and their families get a fresh — and healthy — start in their new homes at Fort Cavazos.”
The military relocation assistance program at Fort Cavazos is part of Instacart’s work under its sweeping Instacart Health initiative. Through Instacart Health, the company is using its technology, partnerships, research and advocacy to fight nutrition insecurity, inspire healthy choices and scale food as medicine programs.