Overview: Over five million Americans have lost food assistance following steep federal cuts and expanded work requirements under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. To combat hunger ahead of the holidays, nonprofit GiveDirectly launched the Thanksgiving SNAP Bridge Fund, sending unconditional 100 dollar cash relief payments directly to impacted families via the Propel app.
The U.S. arm of the global nonprofit GiveDirectly will send $100 payments through the Propel app. Enrollment opens Nov. 4.
As five million families lose food assistance ahead of the holidays, GiveDirectly steps up with direct cash relief through the Propel app.
Since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act went into effect July 2025, more than 5 million people have lost federal food assistance benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Economists’ predictions were that the major cuts, along with new work requirements, would affect most of the roughly 42 million people who use the benefits to keep food on the table each month. But the numbers show that the effects of the Trump administration’s cuts are happening even faster than estimated. More people have lost benefits more quickly than even the Congressional Budget Office predicted they would, CBPP notes. “The last time there was such a steep decrease in participation (other than temporary spikes following natural disasters) was nearly three decades ago, after Congress enacted deep cuts to SNAP (then the Food Stamp Program) in 1996,” the organization notes.
“It felt like a crisis a year ago when it paused, and it was,” said Dustin Palmer, executive director of U.S. programs for the global nonprofit GiveDirectly. Now, he says, the policy changes are causing a slow decline and the bigger problem for participants is having to meet work requirements and other jump over reapplication hurdles to stay enrolled.
“Often people don’t know they’re going to lose the benefit in advance,” Palmer says. “[They’ve] missed a letter that went to [an address] from three mailing addresses ago.” Something as simple as missing a phone call from a blocked number can cause havoc. “The way you find out is when you go to swipe your card and there’s no money on it, and that is so destabilizing,” he says.
With Thanksgiving approaching, the lean times become more pronounced. Grocery prices are still rising and households have to decide how to navigate the crisis..
In an effort to shore up families, the global nonprofit GiveDirectly is launching a Thanksgiving SNAP Bridge Fund, with direct, one-time cash payments to families with no strings attached.
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