With Fresh Funds, you’ll get funds for 3 months to buy healthy food items on Instacart. Eligible items include fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and low-fat dairy. Fresh Funds can also be used for grocery delivery to your address and to cover any Instacart service fees. 

This is part of a research study. We’re trying to understand what types of programs best help people manage their blood pressure.

If you take part, we will give you Fresh Funds for 3 months to use to buy food on the Instacart website or app. You will need to set up an account with Instacart on the website or download the mobile app. After you set up your account, we will send you an activation code to add the first month of Fresh Funds to your account. Then you can start shopping.  

If you are in one of our research studies, we may ask you to go to your normally scheduled doctors’ appointments (in about 3 months) and to take a survey before the program and after the program. We may also ask some participants to complete short surveys about their experience during the program.   

You can choose any grocery store available on the Instacart app. They have grocery stores available, like Kroger, Aldi’s, Meijer, and others. Once you create your account and enter your delivery address, you can see the options closest to you.  

You can use some of the Fresh Funds to pay for delivery to your address.

Eligible items include fruits, vegetables, lean protein, high fiber foods, and low-fat dairy. 

When you shop on Instacart, you should see a small Fresh Funds box under items that are eligible.  

Yes. You will need to add a backup payment method with available funds (debit card, credit card, or PayPal) to your account even if you only plan to buy Fresh Fund eligible items. The payment method is used for a temporary authorization hold while your order is processed and for any price adjustments on the final order.  

If your payment method doesn’t have available funds, your order won’t go through. 

If you have problems using Fresh Funds, please contact Instacart's customer service at 1-844-981-3433 or use the 'Help' feature on Instacart. 

If your problem is not resolved, please contact us at 859-218-9114 or foodandyou@uky.edu.   

People who are between age 18-64, have hypertension, and have screened positive for food insecurity by their doctor’s office, or have been referred by their health insurance provider.

The program is only for you as the person taking part in the study. Right now, we can only take referrals for the program from certain clinics we are working with, and only one person per household can participate. We hope this study will help us make the program available to more people across Kentucky.  

No, participating in this program will not affect any other benefits or programs that you receive.