Instacart, the grocery delivery app, is working on a pilot program. Apparently, that would allow you to take food stamps as a payment in the app. The program shall only be available in select states and Aldi stores. Some of those states are Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Illinois.
Instacart said that it is “committed to being a long-term solution for EBT SNAP households nationwide.”
The company is eager to roll out the update
Co-president of Aldi US, Brent Laubaugh, expressed in a statement that the company was very eager to roll out this update as soon as possible. He hinted at possible future expansion.
You can now shop for SNAP eligible products at Aldi via the Instacart app. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Later, the customers can find out the SNAP benefits applicable to their total bill amount after you add all the products to the cart.
And as per the USDA website, the SNAP benefits are only applicable for food and plants and seeds for growing food. This implies that SNAP is not useful to cover your Instacart delivery charges and tips.
The pandemic has lead to a huge rise in the sales of online grocery delivery platforms
Due to the coronavirus pandemic situation, online grocery services are in a huge demand. And sales of grocery platforms like Instacart, Grubhub, and Shipt are skyrocketing. According to Instacart, its sales have gone up by 500% over the past year.
However, not many delivery platforms equip food stamps or SNAP as a method of payment. For example, Walmart accepts SNAP in select states when picking up an online order. And a few Kroger locations take SNAP for curb side pickup of online orders. Additionally, Amazon Prime users can register their SNAP cards for online food purchases.
One of the largest food assistance program in the US, SNAP has grown rapidly over the few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus, between February to May, the sales grew three times more rapidly, according to an analysis conducted by New York Times.
An act passed in March called Families First Act, momentarily decreased some of the administrative processing of SNAP applications. This in turn would help the people receive aid more quickly. As a result, according to an NPR analysis, SNAP increased up to 40 %.
