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finance Jade Grant and her three children were already worried as we entered the final months of the year.
“Everyone’s birthdays come one after the other,” said the 32-year-old certified nursing assistant. “You’ve got the holidays coming up. You’ve got Thanksgiving. Everything’s right there. And then, fast. No (food) stamps.”
Grant is one of approximately 42 million low-income people Americans Those who get help buying groceries from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. When the federal shutdown began in October, she wasn’t worried about losing her benefits — she said she’d grown accustomed to the government’s “stupidity.”
But things turned sour as the budget impasse entered its second month and President donald trump Took the unprecedented step of freezing November SNAP payments. With one child who eats gluten-free and another who has a variety of allergies, specialty items have already increased her grocery bill. Now Grant is wondering how she’ll keep food on the table — especially as her youngest child’s sixth birthday approaches.
Then Grant logged into Propel, an app that 5 million people use to manage their electronic benefits transfers, where she saw a pop-up banner inviting her to apply for a relief program. Within a minute she completed a survey and about two days later she received a virtual $50 gift card.
The total amount didn’t even come close to her monthly SNAP allotment. But the Palm Bay, Florida resident said it was enough to buy the customized thing. Blue “Birthday cake for her son.”
Nearly a quarter of a million families received the same cash injection from the nonprofit GiveDirectly after they missed SNAP deposits to feed their families. The collaboration with Propel marks the largest disaster response other than COVID-19 in the history of an international cash assistance group; Non-pandemic records were set with $12 million raised, more than 246,000 beneficiaries enrolled and 5,000 individual donors reached.
Recipients are still recovering from the uncertainty of last month’s SNAP delay. According to Propel CEO Jimmy Chen, the company’s surveys show that many people are struggling with the long-term consequences of borrowing money in early November when their benefits did not arrive on time. At a time when users felt the existing safety net was weakened, they credited instant payments for buoying them financially and emotionally.
“It’s not a lot. But at the same time, it’s a lot,” Grant said. “Because $50 can go a long way when you have nothing.”
A ‘man-made disaster’ forces partners to try something new
This isn’t the first partnership for an anti-poverty nonprofit and a for-profit software company. They have previously combined GiveDirectly’s fast cash model with Propel’s verified user base to get money to natural disaster survivors – including $1,000 given to some of the households affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene last year.
“This particular event of the shutdown we looked at was similar to a natural disaster,” Chen said, “in the sense that it created really sudden and really severe hardship for many Americans across the country.”
This time the scope was different. As GiveDirectly US country director Dustin Palmer said, the “man-made disaster” was not geographically isolated. The withholding of benefits affected more people than those they normally serve. SNAP costs about $10 billion a month, Palmer said, so he never expected to raise enough money to fully replace the delayed benefits.
But 5,000 individual donors — plus $1 million gifts from Propel and New York nonprofit Robin Hood, as well as support from other major foundations — provided a bigger pot. Palmer found that the issue resonated more than he expected.
GiveDirectly reports that the average donation was $100. Palmer took that reaction as a sign that the issue has come to a close for many Americans.
“You and I know SNAP recipients. Maybe we’ve been SNAP recipients,” Palmer said. “So it wasn’t a disaster in Central Texas, where I’ve never been, but there was something in our communities.”
The biggest question revolves around the total amount of each cash transfer. Should they reach more people with fewer dollars or vice versa? For example, Los Angeles wildfire survivors received $3,500 from a similar GiveDirectly campaign. But this is because they wanted to provide adequate facilities for one month’s accommodation and transit to those who had lost their homes.
They settled on $50 because Palmer said they wanted a “stopgap” that represented “a worthwhile trip to the grocery store.” To evenly focus their limited resources where support would be most lacking, Palmer said they targeted families with children who receive the maximum SNAP allocation. As soon as the app detects that a family hasn’t received benefits at the usual time of the month, Propel’s software allows them to send money.
Recipients decide whether their prepaid debit cards have physically arrived, which can allow them to withdraw cash atmOr virtually, which can be used almost immediately. According to Palmer, the split is usually pretty even, but this time more than 90% of recipients went with the virtual option.
“To me, it speaks to the momentum and need of the people,” Palmer said. “Just saying, ‘Oh yes, I just need food today. I don’t want to wait to get it in the mail.'”
Recipients lose faith when closely watched benefits are disrupted
Diana Tompkins relies on her SNAP balance to feed her baby and 8-year-old.
“Honestly, I watch it like a hawk,” she said.
But she said she went into “panic mode” when she missed her usual $976 deposit last month. She’s a gig worker, fulfilling DoorDash and Uber Eats orders when she has time.
Her pantry is always stocked with non-perishable items – canned goods, pasta, sauces – in case her unreliable van stops working and she can’t get to the store. But she couldn’t afford to opt out as uncertainty continued over the duration of the shutdown and future SNAP payments.
The $50 from GiveDirectly got her milk and bread — not much, but a “huge help,” she said. Her local food pantry in Demotte, Indiana, had proven inconsistent. One week they delivered more than expected, he said, but the next week they were “so overwhelmed” that it was barely worth watching.
He said it was “scary” that the government could “decide not to feed so many people.”
“At least I have my safety net but not everyone is that lucky,” he said. “I’ve never trusted the government and this is a new solid reason why I don’t trust them.”
Chen, Propel’s CEO, said his company’s research shows that the November freeze has damaged many recipients’ trust in the government. Despite SNAP being funded during the next fiscal year, many respondents are worried about another shutdown, Chen said.
“Now this has sown the seeds of doubt for people that something as basic as they use to pay for food may not be there when they need it,” Chen said.
This gap remains for many people. Propel estimates that more than half of SNAP recipients received their benefits late last month. GiveDirectly launched an additional “mop-up” campaign to retroactively distribute cash to more than 8,000 people still in crisis.
The delay disrupted the fiscal balancing work that Grant was doing. He postponed paying his electricity bill and car insurance.
“The government shuts down and it throws everything into complete disarray,” he said.
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