Montgomery County is opening up 150 more slots in a program that gives vouchers to residents who are short on food so they can buy groceries through Instacart.

The expansion brings the number of households in the program to 700.

“We have families living paycheck to paycheck with limited savings, high levels of debt, to make difficult choices between rent, utility, health care and food,” said Heather Bruskin, director of the county’s Office of Food Systems Resilience.

The MC Groceries program, which the county launched with the Instacart food delivery service in 2024, helps families who don’t qualify for federal assistance but still struggle to afford groceries. County Executive Marc Elrich called this “the SNAP gap” Wednesday at his weekly media briefing.

The program allows recipients to receive up to $400 a month to use through the Instacart grocery delivery platform, which gives users more choices than a traditional food bank.

Households within the program have two children on average, according to county officials.

Bruskin said that when President Donald Trump took office, the county had more than 100,000 residents living in households where income was too high to be eligible for federal assistance programs like SNAP, but not high enough to cover the basic costs of living.

Families who participate in the Instacart program say that without it they often can’t afford fish and other high-protein foods, and fresh fruits and vegetables, Bruskin said.

She added that she can’t extend the program to every county resident who needs it. Her office, she said, prioritizes those who are ineligible for other food assistance programs, families “just on the bubble of hunger,” Bruskin said.

To qualify, families have to live in Montgomery County and have incomes below 400% of the federal poverty level. They must have at least one child under the age of 18 who is not enrolled in SNAP.

A previous version of this story incorrectly described the expansion of the program as a response to the federal shutdown and SNAP cuts. County officials said the success of the program prompted the expansion.