HelloFresh, Cigna Expanding Access to Affordable, Healthy Food
Meal kit company HelloFresh and Cigna Healthcare, the health benefits division of The Cigna Group, have formed an exclusive collaboration to offer discounted access to HelloFresh's offerings to up to 12 million Cigna Healthcare customers through their employers. The two companies will also join forces to support HelloFresh’s Meals with Meaning program, which provides free meal kits for food-insecure people in local communities.
“Business leaders recognize that healthy employees mean a healthy business, and by expanding access to affordable, healthy meals, employers can better cultivate a stronger workforce,” noted Heather Dlugolenski, U.S. commercial strategy officer at Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna Healthcare. “We’re proud to team up with HelloFresh to support the health and vitality of America’s workforce and to make a difference for communities in need.”
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Cigna Healthcare employer clients can select from a range of HelloFresh products, with no minimum purchase amount. Employees can then pick from the options provided, which may include e-gift cards for employees, discounted meal kit subscriptions, and one-time box deliveries to employees’ doorsteps with no subscription required. Each HelloFresh delivery provides all of the fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and step-by-step instructions to make healthy meals.
“We’re excited to team up with Cigna Healthcare to make fresh and wholesome HelloFresh meal kits available as a health care benefit,” said Adam Kalikow, SVP and managing director, Meal Kits at HelloFresh U.S. “This partnership emphasizes the important role that home cooking plays in supporting consumers’ overall health and well-being. Together with Cigna Healthcare, we’re making HelloFresh meal kits even more accessible while working together to combat food insecurity in our local communities.”
Underscoring the need for such initiatives, one in three U.S. workers said that they had faced food insecurity within the past three months, according to The Cigna Group’s 2023 “Vitality in America” research, while the CDC has found that six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, many exacerbated by unhealthy diets.
Last December, Cigna Healthcare and its health equity team teamed with select employer clients in underserved communities to deliver almost 3,500 HelloFresh meals to their employees during the holidays. These efforts were managed by Cigna Healthcare's well-being coordinators, some of whom are registered dietitians.
Berlin-based HelloFresh operates in 18 international markets and is No. 46 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top retailers of food and consumables in North America. The company has offices in New York, Chicago and Boulder, Colo.
