NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A major food delivery app could soon be used to combat local food insecurity in New Hanover County and The New Hanover Community Endowment’s latest partnership to alleviate area food deserts.
Emails obtained by Port City Daily show New Hanover County working on a partnership agreement with Instacart to deliver groceries and prescriptions to eligible county residents.
NHC Department of Health and Human Services’ management team discussed the initiative on June 23, per minutes obtained by Port City Daily. The minutes state the program is designed to provide 2,000 Instacart memberships to individuals living in food deserts who experience barriers to accessing healthy food.
The county was not able to confirm details related to the program, as a non-disclosure agreement is in place until a contract is finalized.
“The program is still in the final stages of planning, and full details, including eligibility, benefits, and the application timeline, will be shared in a forthcoming announcement once that planning is complete,” county spokesperson Alex Riley wrote in a statement.
The county first told Port City Daily it was working on an agreement with one of the “leading grocery delivery platforms” in May after The Endowment granted $1.24 million to the county for a “two-year grocery delivery program serving all 8 food deserts in New Hanover County.”
Food deserts are places with limited access to healthy, fresh food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture identifies eight county tracts where a “significant number or share” of low-income residents live more than 1 mile away from a supermarket as of 2019; these areas encompass downtown Wilmington’s northside and southside, part of the Smith Creek and Kings Grant area, and neighborhoods near UNCW.
DHHS minutes state county participants are to receive a complimentary Instacart+ membership, which typically costs $10 a month. They will also receive a $10 “healthy food benefit” to use toward deliveries.
While anyone can utilize Instacart the app, the membership eliminates delivery fees for grocery orders more than $10, though service fees still apply. Users are also able to plug in their EBT, or food stamps, cards into the app.
The Instacart app provides access to major grocery stores, such as Publix, Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Aldi. Though research has shown these companies and Instacart utilize “dynamic pricing” strategies to raise and lower prices for the same items depending on the customer and time of sale.
The DHHS minutes indicate eligibility for the county’s program would apply to people 18 or older (exceptions for emancipated minors 16 or older), with incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level; this would extend eligibility to earners making up to $47,880 per year.
The minutes stated an application portal is being developed, though there were no details on when it would open nor how participants would be chosen if its applications exceed available funding.
The county is also planning on hiring a new position for application management, education and outreach, and will have quarterly reporting, according to the minutes. The initiative is being implemented in partnership with the Senior Resource Center.
A similar partnership exists between Instacart and the City of Columbia in South Carolina. Instacart launched its Grocery Access Pilot program there in October 2023; 110 Columbia residents living in food deserts take advantage of an Instacart membership and receive $5 a month in “Health Fresh Funds” stipends.
If a contract with Instacart is finalized, New Hanover County would be one of the handful of municipalities to partner with the company on food access. Now in its third year of implementation, the City of Columbia’s program was most recently extended in April 2026.
As part of the extension announcement, the city conducted a participant survey to gather feedback on the experience and measure the program’s impact; 79% of participants indicated they are very likely to continue participating in the GAP program if extended and 6% said the program improved their ability to provide food for their household “a great deal.”
At the time, the city said 70 spots in the program were available.
In 2024, Instacart also partnered with Montgomery County in Maryland, to launch the MC Groceries program. The program, funded with $1.8 million in public funding, provides 600 Montgomery County families that fall into the “SNAP gap” with $100 monthly stipends for Instacart pickup or delivery from local retailers. The SNAP gap refers families that do not qualify for federal food assistance but don’t earn enough to consistently afford nutritious food.
If New Hanover County’s program is finalized, it will be the second partnership with The Endowment and the county attempting to address food insecurity.
The Endowment had put forth funds to tackle the issue before, in 2024 when it announced a $6.7-million grant to the county for a long-promised grocery store in downtown’s northside at 10th and Post streets. Coupled with the county’s investment and the land donated by the City of Wilmington, the money was enough to get the store, to be run by the Northside Food Co-op, off the ground. The Northside has been considered a food desert for years and has been promised a grocery store on numerous occasions by area governments.
However, the project was derailed in December 2024, when news broke of the City of Wilmington’s deal to sell three Chestnut Street properties to be used as a major grocery chain. The following month, the co-op told the county and The Endowment it was pausing work on its grocery store from the food co-op, though the public wouldn’t be notified until county commissioner Bill Rivenbark slipped up about the pause in a March 2025 meeting.
The Northside Food Co-op needed time to evaluate other business models to better compete with a nearby grocery chain; options included relocating the store or the addition of a hot bar to attract more customers.
As recently reported by Port City Daily, The Endowment and co-op were talking behind the scenes about changes to the project, along with the Northside Food Co-op failure to merge into a nonprofit as allegedly planned. This made the grocery store project ineligible for The Endowment’s funding because of IRS stipulations.
The Endowment said it still planned to award the unspent portion of the grant to the county for food insecurity purposes at large, which the county could have spent on the food co-op.
However, in a budget session in June 2025, Commissioner LeAnn Pierce announced the county would withdraw its funding from funding the co-op. Without any commitment from the county, The Endowment ended its plans to grant further money for food security — until the announcement about the food delivery service grant this year.
At Port City Daily, we aim to keep locals informed on top-of-mind news facing the tri-county region. To support our work and help us reach more people in 2026, please, consider helping one of two ways: Subscribe here or make a one-time contribution here.
We appreciate your ongoing support.
