driving cars to pregnant women – Houston Public Media

The Houston Food Bank has announced a new partnership with self-driving vehicle company Cruise to deliver specialized foods to pregnant women facing food insecurity in select parts of the city.

The pilot program will use Cruise's self-driving cars to transport 6,000 meals across 180 deliveries. Although the cars are fully autonomous, safety drivers will always be present within the vehicles, according to the food bank. The deliveries will include tailored produce and non-perishable items as part of the food bank's Food Rx program , which provides specialized food for those with underlying health conditions.

"This innovative program will be very insightful and impactful," Brian Greene, president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank said in a statement. "Partnership with Cruise allows us to leverage new technology to support at-risk new and expectant mothers with essential food packages delivered right to their doorstep, ensuring they have what they need to care for their families."

Senior director of programs at Houston Food Bank, Melanie McGuire, told Houston Public Media that the Cruise vehicles are being used as part of a wider study by Community Health Choice and UT Public Health into the correlation between women who experience higher-risk pregnancies and food insecurity.

The pilot program began earlier this month and has freed up some volunteers to do additional deliveries or other duties, McGuire added. Officials with the food bank say the Cruise partnership aims to use new technologies to deliver food directly to those in need.

"We do a lot of different home deliveries through a lot of different healthcare organizations," she said. "We've talked to Cruise and their interest in the Houston market [and] we think this is a win-win. The ability for them to give back with their resources and for us to be able to most directly support food-insecure neighbors — my hope is that everyone sees the value in that."

According to Feeding America , a U.S.-based non-profit hunger relief organization, one in 11 pregnant women face food insecurity. Despite this, the effect of food insecurity on expectant mothers remains an understudied topic, according to the organization.

A 2018 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that pregnant women living in a food-insecure home have an increased risk for gestational diabetes — a condition that can lead to negative maternal and infant health outcomes. According to the Houston Food Bank, approximately 1 million Houstonians are currently affected by food insecurity.

The pilot program will be conducted over three months in more than 30 Houston ZIP codes, which according to McGuire, were selected based on factors identified by healthcare providers.

"Part of that was based on where they resided, so we had less control of where those opportunities are," she said. "I would say in general, in terms of our services, a lot of those areas where we see a high rate of food insecurity, we also see high rates of poverty. So, it's not surprising that those areas are areas of very high need in our community."

More information about the pilot program can be found on the Houston Food Bank's website .

Cruise is a California-based automated vehicle company that began operating in Houston in late 2023. Shortly after being released onto the streets of Houston, the vehicles ceased operations due to an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — an investigation that's still active .