Food delivery companies are offering discounts to customers who receive SNAP benefits to try to ease the strain of the government shutdown.
Instacart said Friday it will offer SNAP beneficiaries 50% off their next grocery order as the government prepares to cut off food aid payments.
Any customer who placed an order in October using a SNAP/EBT card will be eligible for the discount, which will be available even if the government makes the payments as planned on Nov. 1, the company said.
Instacart is also tripling its usual donations to more than 300 food banks.
The San Francisco-based grocery delivery company said both programs amount to $5 million in direct relief.
“As SNAP funding faces unprecedented disruption and food banks brace for longer lines, we’re focused on practical, immediate solutions: helping families who use SNAP stretch their grocery dollars and helping food banks stock up to support their communities,” said Dani Dudeck, Instacart’s chief corporate affairs officer.
Instacart is one of several big companies reacting to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.
DoorDash, a delivery company also based in San Francisco, said earlier this week it would waive service and delivery fees for an estimated 300,000 orders for SNAP recipients in November. DoorDash said it would also deliver 1 million meals from food banks for free.
DoorDash said more than 2.4 million customers have a SNAP/EBT card linked to their DoorDash account.
Instacart didn’t immediately say how many of its customers receive SNAP benefits. The company began accepting online SNAP payments in 2020. It offers discounted memberships for SNAP recipients and zero delivery fees on orders over $35.
Funding fate
Two judges could rule as soon as Friday on whether Trump’s administration must replenish SNAP food aid benefits for November despite the government shutdown.
The grocery-buying ability for about 1 in 8 Americans could hinge on the outcomes.
Even if a judge rules the benefits cannot be suspended for the first time in SNAP’s 61-year history, many beneficiaries are likely to face delays in getting the debit cards they use to buy groceries reloaded. That process can take one to two weeks, so it’s likely too late to get funds on cards in the first days of November.
In a hearing in Boston Thursday on a legal challenge filed by Democratic officials from 25 states, one federal judge seemed skeptical of the administration’s argument that SNAP benefits could be halted.
