How a fast-moving $50 cash relief program buoyed needy families when SNAP payments were paused

Finances already looked tight for Jade Grant and her three children as she entered the year's final months.

“Everyone’s birthday is back-to-back,” the 32-year-old certified nursing assistant said. “You have holidays coming up. You have Thanksgiving. Everything is right there. And then, boom. No (food) stamps.”

Grant is among the nearly 42 million lower-income Americans 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 is used to government “foolishness.”

But circumstances got dicey when 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 with many allergies, specialty items already drove up her grocery bill. Now Grant wondered how she'd put food on the table — especially with her youngest's 6th birthday approaching.

Then Grant logged into Propel, an app used by 5 million people 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'd completed a survey and about two days later she got a virtual $50 gift card.

The total didn't come close to her monthly SNAP allotment. But the Palm Bay, Florida, resident said it was enough to buy a customized “ Bluey ” birthday cake for her son.

Nearly a quarter of a million families got that same cash injection from the nonprofit GiveDirectly as they missed SNAP deposits many need to feed their households. The collaboration with Propel proved to be the largest disaster response in the international cash assistance group's history outside of COVID-19; non-pandemic records were set with the $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 delays. Company surveys suggest many are dealing with the long-term consequences of borrowing money in early November when their benefits didn’t arrive on time, according to Propel CEO Jimmy Chen. At a time when users felt the existing safety net had fallen through, they credit the rapid payments for buoying them — both financially and emotionally.

“It’s not a lot. But at the same time, it is a lot,” Grant said. “Because $50 can do a lot when you don’t have anything.”

It's not the first partnership for the antipoverty nonprofit and for-profit software company. They have previously combined GiveDirectly's fast cash model with Propel's verified user base to get money out to natural disaster survivors — including $1,000 last year to some households impacted by Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

“This particular incident with the shutdown we saw as akin to a natural disaster," Chen said, “in the sense that it created a really sudden and really acute form of hardship for many Americans across the country.”

The scope differed this time. The “man-made disaster,” as GiveDirectly U.S. Country Director Dustin Palmer put it, was not geographically isolated. The benefits freeze impacted more people than they usually serve. SNAP costs almost $10 billion a month, Palmer said, so they never expected to raise enough money to replace the delayed benefits altogether.

But 5,000 individual donors — plus $1 million gifts from Propel and New York nonprofit Robin Hood, as well as other major foundations' support — provided a sizable pot. Palmer found that the issue resonated more than he expected.

GiveDirectly reports that the median donation was $100. Palmer took that response as a sign the issue hit close for many Americans.

“You and I know SNAP recipients. Maybe we’ve been SNAP recipients," Palmer said. "So that was not a disaster in Central Texas where I’ve never been, but something in our communities.”

The greatest question revolved around the total sum of each cash transfer. Should they reach more people with fewer dollars or vice versa? Los Angeles wildfire survivors, for example, got $3,500 each from a similar GiveDirectly campaign. But that's because they wanted to provide enough to cover a month's worth of lodging and transit to those who lost their houses.

They settled on $50 because Palmer said they wanted a “stopgap” that represented “a meaningful trip to the grocery store." To equitably focus their limited resources on the that would be missing the most support, Palmer said they targeted families with children that receive the maximum SNAP allotment. Propel's software allowed them to send money as soon as the app detected that a family's benefits hadn't arrived at the usual time of the month.

Recipients decided whether their prepaid debit cards arrived physically, which might allow them to take cash out of an ATM, or virtually, which could be used almost immediately. The split is usually pretty even, according to Palmer, but this time more than 90% of recipients went with the virtual option.

“To me, that speaks to the speed and need for people,” Palmer said. “Just saying, ‘Oh yeah, I just need food today. I don’t want to wait to get it mailed.’”

Dianna Tompkins relies on her SNAP balance to feed her toddler and 8-year-old child.

“I watch it like a hawk, honestly,” she said.

But she said she entered “panic mode” when she missed what is usually a $976 deposit last month. She's a gig worker, completing DoorDash and Uber Eats orders when she finds the time.

Her pantry is always stocked with non-perishables — canned goods, pastas, sauces — in case her unreliable van stops working and she can't get to the store. But she couldn't risk running out as uncertainty continued over the shutdown's length and future SNAP payments.

GiveDirectly’s $50 bought her milk and bread — not much but a “big help,” she said. Her local food pantries in Demotte, Indiana, had proven inconsistent. One week they gave far more than expected, she said, but the following week they were “so overwhelmed” that it almost wasn't worth visiting.

She said it's “scary” the government “can just decide to not feed so many people.”

“At least I have my safety net but not everybody’s lucky,” she said. “I’ve never trusted the government and that’s just a new solid reason why I don’t trust them.”

Chen, the Propel CEO, said his company's research suggests that November's freeze damaged many recipients' confidence in the government. Even with SNAP funded through the next fiscal year, Chen said, many respondents are concerned about another shutdown.

“Now it’s introduced this seed of doubt for people that this really fundamental thing that they use to pay for food may not be there when they need it,” Chen said.

The gap persists for many. Propel estimates that just over half of SNAP recipients got their benefits late last month. GiveDirectly launched an additional “mop-up” campaign to distribute cash retroactively for more than 8,000 people still reeling.

The delay disrupted the financial balancing act that Grant had going. She put off payments for her electricity bill and car insurance.

“Government shuts down and that just throws everything completely off," she said.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Jade Grant poses for a portrait, Dec 18, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Kevin Kolczynski)

Dianna Tompkins checks on her a new DoorDash bag in her car in Demotte, Ind., Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Dianna Tompkins sits on a stair in front of her home in Demotte, Ind., Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Dianna Tompkins holds a her SNAP card at home in Demotte, Ind., Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Dianna Tompkins looks at a mirror while she sits on a bed at her home in Demotte, Ind., Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized, free economic zone monitored by international forces. The proposal, which would address one of the major obstacles to ending Russia's war, must also be put to a referendum.

A similar arrangement could be possible for the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy spoke to reporters Tuesday to describe a 20-point overarching plan that negotiators from Ukraine and the U.S. hammered out in Florida in recent days, though he said that many details are still being worked out.

American negotiators have engaged in a series of talks with Ukraine and Russia separately since U.S. President Donald Trump presented a plan to end the war last month — a proposal widely see as favoring Moscow, which invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago. Since then, Ukraine and its allies in Europe have worked to pull the plan closer to Kyiv's position.

Deciding what will happen to Ukraine’s Donbas region, the vast majority of which Russia has seized, and how Europe’s largest nuclear plant will be managed are some of the most difficult points in the negotiations.

Asked about the plan, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow would set out its position based on information received by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met with U.S. envoys in Florida over the weekend. Peskov declined to share further details.

Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal of its troops from land it has seized. In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.

Zelenskyy acknowledged that figuring out control of the region is “the most difficult point.” He said these matters should be discussed at the leaders level.

In addition to saying the plan must be put to a referendum, Zelenskyy said an international force would have to be deployed to the region.

Meanwhile, on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the U.S. has proposed a consortium with Ukraine and Russia, in which each party would have an equal stake. Zelenskyy countered with a proposal for joint venture between the U.S. and Ukraine, in which the Americans would be able to decide how to distribute their share, including giving some of it to Russia.

Zelenskyy acknowledged that the U.S. has not yet accepted Ukraine's counterproposals.

“We did not reach a consensus with the American side on the territory of the Donetsk region and on the ZNPP,” Zelenskyy said, using an acronym for the power plant in Zaporizhzhia. “But we have significantly brought most of the positions closer together. In principle, all other consensus in this agreement has been found between us and them.”

Creating a free economic zone in the Donbas would require difficult discussions on how far troops would be required to move back and where international forces would be stationed, Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy said that a referendum is necessary. “Because people could then choose: does this ending suit us, or does it not?”

Such a vote would require 60 days, he added, during which time hostilities should stop.

The working U.S.-Ukraine draft also proposes that Russian forces withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv regions. Zelenskyy envisions that international forces could be located along certain points of the contact line within the free economic zone to monitor the implementation of the agreement.

“Since there is no faith in the Russians, and they have repeatedly broken their promises, today’s contact line is turning into a line of a de facto free economic zone, and international forces should be there to guarantee that no one will enter there under any guise — neither ‘little green men’ nor Russian military disguised as civilians,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine is also proposing that the occupied city of Enerhodar, which is the closest city to the Zaporizhzhia power plant, be a demilitarized free economic zone, Zelenskyy said.

This point required 15 hours of discussions with the U.S., he said, and no agreement was reached.

For now, the U.S. proposes that the plant be jointly operated by Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia, with each side controlling a 33% stake in the enterprise — a plan Zelenskyy called “not entirely realistic."

"How can you have joint commerce with the Russians after everything?” he asked.

Ukraine instead suggested that the plant be operated by a joint venture with the U.S. in which the Americans can determine independently how to distribute the energy from their 50% share.

Zelenskyy said billions in investments are needed to make the plant run again, including restoring the adjacent dam.

The working draft ensures that Ukraine will receive “strong” security guarantees, which would require Ukraine’s partners to act in the event of renewed Russian aggression. That would mirror NATO’s Article 5, which says an armed attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all.

Zelenskyy said that a separate document with the U.S. will outline these guarantees concretely. It will detail the conditions under which security will be provided, particularly in the event of a renewed Russian assault, and will establish a mechanism to monitor any ceasefire. The document will be signed concurrently with the main agreement to end the war, Zelenskyy said.

“The mood of the United States of America is that this is an unprecedented step towards Ukraine on their part. They believe that they are giving strong security guarantees,” he said.

The draft contains other elements including keeping Ukraine’s army at 800,000 during peace time and that Ukraine become a member of the European Union by a specific date. Limiting the size of Ukraine’s military is a key Russian demand.

The document proposes accelerating a free trade agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. The U.S. wants the same deal with Russia, said Zelenskyy.

Ukraine would like to receive short-term privileged access to the European market and a robust global development package that would include the creation of a development fund to invest in industries including technology, data centers and artificial intelligence, as well as gas.

Other points include the provision of funds for the reconstruction of territories destroyed in the war through various means including grants, loans and investment funds.

“Ukraine will have the opportunity to determine the priorities for distributing its share of funds in the territories under the control of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

The goal will be to attract $800 billion through equity, grants, loans and private sector contributions.

The draft proposal also requires Ukraine to hold elections after the signing of the agreement. Zelenskyy’s five-year term was scheduled to end in May 2024, but elections were put off due to Russia’s invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin has seized on that — even those the postponement was legal — and it has become a source of tension with Trump, who has criticized the delay.

Ukraine is also asking that all prisoners taken since 2014 be released at once, and that civilian detainees, political prisoners and children be returned to Ukraine. Russia illegally seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Ukrainian troops and Moscow-backed forces have been fighting in the Donbas since that year as well.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, a residential house is seen damaged after a Russian strike in Zhytomyr region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a car destroyed a Russian strike in Chernihiv region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Municipal workers clean debris on the roof after a Russian drone hit an apartment building during an aerial attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)