In recent years, online grocery shopping has emerged as a promising avenue to bolster food accessibility, especially for households located in urban areas where traditional supermarkets offering affordable, nutritious foods are limited or nonexistent. The expansion of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to include online food purchases was initially celebrated as a step toward reducing barriers to healthy eating. However, early research highlighted a worrying trend: SNAP beneficiaries who shopped online tended to purchase fewer fruits, vegetables, and legumes compared to their in-person shopping behaviors. This paradox suggested that simply enabling online shopping was insufficient to promote healthier dietary choices among low-income families.
Addressing these challenges, a team of nutrition researchers at NYU Steinhardt School designed an innovative pilot intervention aimed at dismantling structural and perceptual barriers that hindered SNAP-eligible families from purchasing healthy foods through online platforms. The strategy targeted several critical obstacles, including limited awareness of SNAP’s online benefits, prohibitive delivery fees, and a lack of trust in proxy shoppers to select high-quality fresh produce. Recognizing that these multidimensional barriers intersect with digital literacy and comfort with technology, the researchers aimed to craft tailored incentives that might empower caregivers of young children to engage confidently with online grocery shopping.
Led by Assistant Professor Angela C. B. Trude, the project centered on low-income urban families residing in the Bronx, a borough typified by both food insecurity and technological disparities. The researchers implemented a randomized controlled experimental design, enlisting 59 participants who were randomly assigned to one of four interventions. Each intervention was an exclusive combination of incentives paired with free delivery services over the intervention period. The groups were delineated as follows: one received free delivery alone; another was offered a dollar-for-dollar match on purchases specifically restricted to fruits, vegetables, and legumes alongside free delivery; a third group received weekly educational text messages containing guidance and tips for navigating online grocery shopping; and the fourth group was provided with structured meal plans complemented by curated grocery lists to streamline shopping decisions.
The methodology embraced both quantitative and qualitative evaluation techniques to assess feasibility and impact. Researchers tracked Instacart account creation and monitored changes in healthy food purchases through transaction data. Complementing this, regular surveys captured participant perceptions regarding the program’s usability, acceptability, and perceived benefits. The dual-pronged data collection approach allowed for nuanced insights into behavioral patterns and subjective experiences that quantitative sales metrics alone could not reveal.
Results revealed that nearly half of the participants—47%—successfully opened and used an online grocery account during the intervention, demonstrating that logistical barriers such as account setup and platform navigation could be overcome with the appropriate support mechanisms. Notably, households increased their proportion of grocery expenditures allocated to fruits, vegetables, and legumes from a baseline of 20% to 21.6%, signaling a measurable, though modest, shift toward healthier purchasing behavior. While the percentage change might appear incremental, in the context of entrenched dietary habits and systemic access challenges, even fractional improvements hold public health significance.
An equally compelling outcome was the reduction in household food insecurity, as measured by a standardized USDA assessment tool. Participants reported an average decrease of 0.6 points on this scale, evidencing that combining online accessibility with targeted incentives can alleviate the pervasive stress associated with inconsistent food availability. This finding underscores the broader societal impact potential of digitized food assistance programs when thoughtfully designed to address both economic and psychological dimensions of food insecurity.
Participant feedback further demonstrated strong engagement and acceptance of the program’s components. Close to 90% of respondents found the instructional video tutorial on setting up online grocery accounts to be helpful, illustrating the importance of clear, accessible digital literacy resources. The weekly text messages were favorably received by 82% of participants, suggesting that ongoing, bite-sized educational content can reinforce shopping confidence and knowledge. Furthermore, customized grocery lists and waived delivery fees were frequently cited as vital elements that eased financial burdens and decision-making stress.
Trude and her team emphasize that while these preliminary findings are encouraging, the pilot’s limited sample size necessitates cautious interpretation. They plan to leverage recent funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a fully powered randomized controlled trial. This upcoming study will refine and scale the intervention, aiming to identify the most cost-effective and impactful combinations of strategies that can be integrated into policy and large-scale programs. The ultimate goal is to develop scalable models that simultaneously improve nutritional quality and food security, balancing affordability with behavioral efficacy.
The promising results align with broader public health priorities aimed at using technology-mediated interventions to reduce health disparities. By focusing on caregivers of young children, this program targets a demographic where nutritional improvements can have lasting effects on growth, development, and chronic disease risk reduction. The layered approach—addressing economic incentives, educational support, and digital navigation—exemplifies a comprehensive model necessary to tackle the complex ecosystem of food access barriers.
Importantly, the intervention sheds light on the nuanced role that structural inequities play in digital food shopping. Issues such as delivery fees, lack of trust in proxy shoppers, and digital literacy deficits are not merely ancillary concerns but core determinants of online shopping behaviors among vulnerable populations. This recognition marks a critical advancement in the design of nutrition assistance programs, moving beyond simple benefit expansion toward integrative, human-centered solutions.
Moreover, the study’s urban setting in the Bronx provides a critical context for examining systemic inequities in grocery infrastructure, digital technology access, and socioeconomic resources. It emphasizes the potential for technology-driven programs to mediate longstanding food deserts and contribute to health equity, provided that interventions are tailored to the lived realities of these communities.
Ultimately, this research underscores the transformative potential of combining policy innovation with grassroots engagement and rigorous scientific inquiry. By identifying measurable improvements in both purchasing patterns and household food security, it points toward a future where technology and nutrition science intersect to empower families, reduce health disparities, and foster sustainable food environments.
As this field develops, critical questions remain about how to maintain participant engagement long-term, integrate interventions into existing public assistance frameworks effectively, and ensure equitable technology access. However, the NYU Steinhardt pilot provides a robust foundation for these ongoing explorations, affirming that online grocery interventions, if thoughtfully constructed, hold substantial promise for improving dietary quality and food security in low-income urban populations.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Feasibility of an Online Grocery Intervention Pilot to Improve Fruit and Vegetable Purchase and Food Security Among Adults With Children Eligible for SNAP
News Publication Date: 21-Aug-2025
Web References:
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2025.07.003
Keywords: Online grocery shopping, SNAP, food security, nutrition intervention, digital literacy, fruit and vegetable purchase, low-income families, urban health, food assistance programs, behavioral incentives, public health nutrition
