Forage and Instacart are proud to announce that customers using Instacart Caper Carts can now pay for groceries directly on the cart with their EBT card. The new capability, powered by Forage, is live today at McKeever's, a grocery chain serving Kansas and Missouri.

"We're proud to partner with Instacart to expand what's possible for the 38 million Americans who use SNAP benefits," said Ofek Lavian, co-founder and CEO of Forage. "Every family should be able to access affordable food, no matter how they pay. Bringing EBT payments to Caper Carts means SNAP households can shop and check out with the same ease and privacy as any other customer."

Caper Carts are Instacart's AI-powered smart carts.

Caper Carts were the first smart carts to show SNAP participants which items were EBT-eligible in real time, while they shop. Now SNAP households can view their EBT balance and check out directly on the cart, with greater privacy than was previously possible.

Approximately one out of every eight Americans relies on SNAP to put food on the table. Research from No Kid Hungry, the University of Kentucky, and Instacart has found that many SNAP households value the privacy of shopping online, in part because it helps avoid the stigma sometimes attached to using benefits in store1. EBT payments on Caper Carts extend that privacy to the in-store trip.

Every transaction on Forage's platform is protected with end-to-end encryption for card data and PIN entry, and is independently certified to the industry's most rigorous payment security standards.

EBT SNAP payments are live on Caper Carts at McKeever's now, with more retailers coming soon.