CaringBridge and Instacart Partner to Deliver Community-Led Access to Groceries, Household Essentials, and Meals

Rhea-AI Summary

CaringBridge, a nonprofit health platform, and Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) have announced a partnership to facilitate community-led support through grocery delivery services. The collaboration enables CaringBridge users to send and receive groceries, pharmacy supplies, and household essentials through Instacart's platform, which reaches over 98% of U.S. households and 95% of food desert areas.

The partnership features a CaringBridge Virtual Storefront on Instacart, allowing caregivers to create personalized shopping lists and share them with their support network. The integration includes Instacart Health Care Carts for direct gifting of essential items from over 1,500 retailers. This service complements CaringBridge's existing Meal Train feature, providing additional support options for caregivers and patients during their health journeys.

Positive

• Partnership expands access to essential services reaching 98% of U.S. households
• Integration with over 1,500 retailers enhances product availability
• Serves 95% of low-access food desert areas

Negative

• None.

Insights

Market Research Analyst

This partnership strategically expands Instacart's presence in the healthcare segment, tapping into CaringBridge's established user base of caregivers and patients. The integration provides a new revenue stream by capturing a dedicated audience with specific, recurring needs. With Instacart's extensive coverage reaching 98% of U.S. households and 95% of food desert areas, this collaboration strengthens their position in the growing healthcare technology sector.

The partnership addresses a important market need by simplifying grocery access for caregivers while potentially increasing order frequency and basket size through specialized Care Carts and personalized lists. This move aligns with Instacart's diversification strategy beyond traditional grocery delivery, particularly in the healthcare vertical where there's significant growth potential.

Tech Expert

The technical integration demonstrates Instacart's platform versatility through features like the CaringBridge Virtual Storefront, personalized lists and Care Carts. The implementation across web and iOS platforms (with staged rollout) shows a methodical approach to user adoption. The integration of gifting functionality and delivery scheduling creates a seamless experience for both caregivers and support networks.

This partnership leverages Instacart's existing infrastructure while adding specialized features for the healthcare segment. The ability to create and share personalized lists, combined with access to over 1,500 retailers, positions Instacart as a comprehensive solution for healthcare-related grocery needs.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. and SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CaringBridge, a nonprofit health platform, and Instacart (NASDAQ: CART), the leading grocery technology company in North America, have partnered to allow easier community-led support for groceries and essentials for family caregivers and their loved ones. Users on the CaringBridge platform now have the option to use Instacart to send and receive groceries and other key household items like pharmacy supplies and over-the-counter medications, pet food, beauty staples, electronics and more from local, regional and national retailers across the country. Instacart reaches more than 98% of U.S. households, as well as 95% of those located in low-access areas commonly known as food deserts, offering easier access to essentials for caregivers and patients.

Through the new partnership, CaringBridge has offered guidance on the grocery items caregivers and patients most often need, through a CaringBridge Virtual Storefront on Instacart. Caregivers and their loved ones can also build personalized lists with favorite items from their preferred retailers, allowing them to share these lists with their communities – both near and far – to help them restock supplies, or meet unique needs of specific dietary plans or occasions. Instacart offers tools that help support caregivers like Instacart Health Care Carts – through Instacart's gifting functionality – a tool that allows anyone to order and send items from the more than 1,500 retailers on Instacart directly to someone they'd like to support. Once an order is placed, recipients have the ability to schedule their delivery window and track the order. Instacart facilitates online grocery shopping and same-day delivery from partner retailers, providing convenient access to fresh and nutritious food and household items, removing a trip to the store which can sometimes be challenging or impossible while managing their health and wellness.

This new partnership gives CaringBridge users even more ways to meet nutritional needs and adds to the benefits of Meal Train which already exists within the CaringBridge platform.

"Access to nutritious food is essential for health and well-being, and Instacart empowers caregivers and loved ones to meet each individual's unique needs with ease," said Sarah Mastrorocco, Vice President and General Manager of Health at Instacart. "Our partnership with CaringBridge enables us to make caregiving more seamless, helping people provide and receive meaningful support in their daily lives. From delivering a few much-needed essentials to stocking up on a full week's groceries, Instacart helps transform simple gestures into impactful acts of care."

"We know that food requests are one of the top asks for support from family caregivers to their communities," said Tia Newcomer, CaringBridge CEO. "Food helps healing, and so we're thrilled to be able to expand the ways in which nutritional needs of both family caregivers and their loved ones are met during a health journey. Caregivers face incredibly complex challenges throughout a health journey – from feelings of isolation and overwhelm to emotional exhaustion from being 'always on'. This partnership with Instacart helps alleviate that burden by providing instrumental support while also allowing for personalization of dietary needs in support of any health journey."

Communities often struggle with how to help caregivers and loved ones and what action to take. Food related requests are one of the most impactful ways a visitor to CaringBridge can positively impact the journey of a loved one or supporting caregiver.

Access to Instacart is available via CaringBridge.org today and via the CaringBridge iOS app later this month.

About Instacart

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. The company partners with more than 1,500 national, regional, and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 85,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace. Instacart makes it possible for millions of people to get the groceries they need from the retailers they love, and for approximately 600,000 Instacart shoppers to earn by picking, packing and delivering orders on their own flexible schedule. The Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights. With Instacart Ads, thousands of CPG brands – from category leaders to emerging brands – partner with the company to connect directly with consumers online, right at the point of purchase. With Instacart Health, the company is providing tools to increase nutrition security, make healthy choices easier for consumers, and expand the role that food can play in improving health outcomes. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company, and to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com. Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart.

About CaringBridge 

CaringBridge is a no-cost, 501(c)(3) nonprofit health platform that surrounds family caregivers with support while they care for a loved one on a health journey. A donor-supported nonprofit founded in 1997, the organization offers tools to share and document a health journey, simplify care coordination, and connect caregivers with a supportive community. CaringBridge addresses feelings of overwhelm, isolation, and loneliness by improving emotional health and social connectedness, helping people come together in support of healing. With 320,000 people on the platform every day sending or receiving support, there are over 1,600 messages of love, hope, and compassion posted every hour. And every 12 minutes a new CaringBridge page is started. The CaringBridge community includes all 50 states and more than 242 countries around the world.

To support family caregivers, and to ensure no one goes through a health journey alone, make a tax-deductible donation at CaringBridge.org/give.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/caringbridge-and-instacart-partner-to-deliver-community-led-access-to-groceries-household-essentials-and-meals-302326409.html

SOURCE CaringBridge

FAQ

What services does the CaringBridge and Instacart (CART) partnership offer?

The partnership allows CaringBridge users to send and receive groceries, pharmacy supplies, and household essentials through Instacart's delivery platform, featuring a Virtual Storefront and Health Care Carts for direct gifting.

When will the Instacart integration be available on CaringBridge's iOS app?

The Instacart integration will be available on CaringBridge's iOS app later in December 2024, while it's already accessible via CaringBridge.org.

What is the coverage area for the CaringBridge-Instacart (CART) delivery service?

The service reaches over 98% of U.S. households and 95% of households in food desert areas through Instacart's network of more than 1,500 retailers.