Harvard Pilgrim Health Care partners with Foodsmart to offer comprehensive nutrition support to its members

WELLESLEY, Mass., Oct. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has partnered with Foodsmart by Zipongo, a telenutrition and digital foodcare solution based in San Francisco, CA. Foodsmart is a digital nutrition platform that offers online food ordering, immunity-boosting recipes, meal planning for the whole family, and more. The Foodsmart NutriQuiz helps monitor progress against health goals, and facilitates personalization of meal plans and grocery lists based on eating habits, food preferences, allergies, and nutrition needs. Members can then take advantage of Foodsmart's integration with sites like Instacart, Amazon Fresh, and Walmart to quickly and easily order groceries via their favorite store—and can even browse current local store specials on healthy food, without any food advertisements from processed food makers. And Foodsmart's convenient CookItNow feature offers quick recipe recommendations, based on food that members might already have on-hand.

"Eating nutrient dense, minimally processed food is one of the single best actions you can take for good health," says Tami Ireland, Director of Health Engagement at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. "It can also be one of the most difficult. Harvard Pilgrim has long been a champion of healthy food accessibility. Given the positive impact good nutrition can have on obesity, diabetes, hypertension, COVID-19 risk and other chronic conditions, we are thrilled that this partnership with Foodsmart will help us take that support to the next level, helping our members navigate getting healthy food on the table."

Jason Langheier, M.D., MPH, the CEO and founder of Foodsmart, adds, "Poor nutrition is the leading driver of disability and healthcare costs in America, and obesity and blood glucose levels are associated with COVID-19 mortality risk¹.  Harvard Pilgrim has long been a leader in population health, and we are honored to help them empower foodcare for people throughout New England – to help address food insecurity, and fight the slow and fast pandemics of diabesity and COVID-19." 

About Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Harvard Pilgrim and its family of companies provide health benefit plans, programs and services to more than 3 million customers in New England and beyond. A leading not-for-profit health services company, we guide our members – and the communities we serve – to better health.

Founded by doctors 50 years ago, we're building on our legacy. In partnership with our expansive network of doctors and hospitals, we're improving health outcomes and lowering costs through clinical quality and innovative care management.

Our commitment to the communities we serve is driven by the passion of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation. Through its work, low- and moderate-income families are gaining greater access to fresh, affordable food — a cornerstone to better health and well-being.

About Foodsmart

Foodsmart, formerly Zipongo, is the leading provider of telenutrition and digital foodcare services. The Foodsmart platform empowers people to make sustainable changes to eating behavior and health outcomes through its dietary assessment (Nutriquiz) and nutrition counseling, personalized meal planning and custom recommendations for getting food on the table, every day.  FoodsMart also makes it easy and affordable to buy healthy food online or in person, without the influence of processed food advertising. The platform is supported by a national network of registered dietitians, and has supported over 1,000,000 members and 1,000 clients in achieving significant nutritional improvement. This improvement has led to cost-effectively sustained weight loss and health outcomes improvements, and positive ROI. To learn more about Foodsmart's foodcare platform, visit www.foodsmart.com or request a demo at [email protected].

Contact:  Philip Tracey, [email protected]

¹ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-020-0364-6

SOURCE Harvard Pilgrim Health Care