Lyft Launches Plan for Food Security, Social Determinants of Health - PatientEngagementHIT.com

April 26, 2019 - Rideshare provider Lyft is implementing a new program to help connect vulnerable communities to healthy food in an effort to address food security and the social determinants of health.

The Lyft Grocery Access Program will offer affordable rides to families in vulnerable communities accessing groceries.

This program comes after successful rollout in Washington DC, where Lyft connected individuals living in food scarce parts of the District. In partnership with Martha’s Table, a community organization that aims to improve food access, Lyft offered a $2.50 flat rate ride to area supermarkets and grocery stores. Families with children in one of seven participating elementary schools qualified for the program.

This program has helped connect families to more nutritious foods, which is one of the bedrocks of overall wellness.

“The Lyft Grocery Access Program is an innovative partnership that aligns with our mission to support strong children, strong families, and strong communities,” Tiffany Williams, chief programs officer at Martha's Table, said of the program. “By offering discounted flat-rate rides to three full-service grocery stores and to Martha’s Table Market, the program has helped to reduce the time, transportation, and financial barriers to healthy food access.”

Following the program’s start in DC, Lyft expanded it to Atlanta, Georgia. And now, it will be partnering with other community groups to expand patient access to affordable and nutritious food in other cities across the country.

Participating cities include:

Atlantic City
Baltimore
Chicago
Columbus
Detroit
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Ottawa
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland
Richmond
Toronto

Food security is a key health issue that impacts 23.5 million individuals across the country, Lyft noted. Affordable, safe, and reliable transportation is one barrier to accessing nutritious food, alongside affordability of the food itself and knowledge about healthy and nutritious diets.

This program will be essential to reaching vulnerable individuals who face those barriers and do not typically have access to healthy food, said Asha Walker, executive director of Health in the Hood, one of the community organizations partnering with Lyft in Miami.

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Lyft,” Walker said. “This groundbreaking initiative will connect families in food deserts to healthy grocery options that they would otherwise not be able to access.”

As noted above, access to nutritious food is a key social determinant of health. Individuals who do not have access to food run the risk of developing a chronic illness, such as diabetes, and facing struggles in other areas of their lives, such as at work or in school.

Research revealed that stable access to nutritious food can have positive impacts on patient health. A 2017 report published in BMC Geriatrics and Population Health Management revealed that public programs that connect patients to food can lower hospital utilization among chronically ill senior populations.

Patients with access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits saw a 14 percent reduction in likelihood for hospitalization, the researchers found. Additionally, access to SNAP benefits reduced the likelihood of each individual day in the hospital by 10 percent.

There was also a return on investment, the researchers found. SNAP access saved an estimated $19 million in healthcare spending, while expanding the program itself would cost around $39 million. This means that about half of the cost for SNAP would be recouped via healthcare savings.

“These findings have public health implications because the majority of US older adults who are income eligible for SNAP do not participate,” the researchers concluded. “As public and private sector health care partners shift to outcomes-driven, value-based care, social service programs such as SNAP will be a critical tool in improving health outcomes for low-income seniors across the country.”

While this latest program from Lyft will not necessarily reduce the costs of the groceries themselves, it will nonetheless overcome other barriers patients may face accessing healthy food. In doing so, it will help address the social determinants of health and ideally improve health outcomes.

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