Shipt Targets Healthy Meals as Part of White House Hunger Conference

Food delivery platform Shipt is launching a new initiative targeting healthy foods and nutritious meal planning, with plans to add ​​Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) payments for low-income shoppers in 2023.

Shipt outlined its plans in Washington, D.C., at the second-ever White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health held on Wednesday (Sept. 28) to align with the Biden administration’s new initiatives. 

“As a tech company that delivers groceries, partners with organizations across the country, and prioritizes food insecurity as a pillar of focus, Shipt is uniquely positioned to contribute to this conversation,” Shipt CEO Kamau Witherspoon said in a press release. “Shipt is delivering for the communities we serve by expanding access to healthy foods to those who need it most.

“These new initiatives are an essential part of our ongoing commitment to put people first and make a meaningful impact in parts of our country that have been left out or left behind.”

See also: Instacart Launches Health Initiative, Expands SNAP EBT Access

Other delivery aggregators have also made changes in conjunction with initiatives from the White House hunger conference, including Instacart. Its new Instacart Health offering underscores the critical intersection of food and health, and includes research partnerships and a policy agenda.

Instacart is also planning to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand SNAP EBT access to Instacart grocery partners in all 50 states next year.

President Joe Biden revived the White House hunger conference that was started by former President Richard Nixon in 1969 with a new goal aimed at ending hunger by 2030, according to a strategy report released by the White House this month. The report also targets increasing healthy eating and physical activity to reduce diet-related diseases.

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The report noted that “more than 50 years since the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health, the U.S. has yet to end hunger and is facing an urgent, nutrition-related health crisis — the rising prevalence of diet-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and certain cancers.”