United States House of Representatives - Committee on Rules - Written Statement of Jimmy Chen - Founder and CEO, Propel - June 16, 2021

Sep 19, 2026

Upload by Rhys

Written testimony for the United States House of Representatives Committee on Rules describing Propel’s free smartphone app for managing EBT cards and improving users’ financial health. The statement highlights how families rely on the app for balance checks, transaction history, budgeting, coupons, and job postings, with emphasis on nutrition and food insecurity. It explains the shift from Fresh EBT to Providers and outlines user-centered technology improvements informed by surveys, interviews, calls, and reviews.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLetters

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

User Experiences and Technology Access

Diana’s Story

Founding and Product Development

From Phone Numbers to Apps

Program Scope and Impact

United States House of Representatives Committee on Rules Written Statement of Jimmy Chen Founder and CEO, Propel June 16, 2021 Executive Summary Propel builds a free smartphone app that over 5 million households across the country use to manage their EBT cards and improve their ﬁ nancial health. Originally named Fresh EBT, we’ve renamed the app Providers-we've heard from our users that nutrition programs and other ﬁ nancial supports enable them to provide for their families with pride. Providers is a free app that enables families with limited income to manage their banking and government beneﬁts i n one uniﬁed place, providing tools and resources to improve their ﬁ nancial health. In this testimony, we will focus on the lived experiences of our users, with an emphasis on nutrition and food insecurity. Through regular surveys, interviews, customer calls, and reviews, we have learned that technology is an opportunity to meet people where they are-to help them make it through the month and to provide for their families. We've spent the past seven years improving our technology to be responsive to the needs of our users, helping them receive emergency cash grants, apply for jobs, save on utility bills, access broadband, and more. We believe that more innovation around government payments like EBT could be unlocked if EBT data was put on par with ﬁ nancial data. Propel was founded from the idea that low-income Americans deserve world class technology, too Diana1 is a mother to seven grown children and grandmother to 19. She works part-time as a housekeeper and the rest of the time provides “daycare” for her family. She and her retired husband have been receiving SNAP in diﬀerent amounts, depending on how much she ’s working, for the past ﬁve or six years. One day she saw her daughter checking her SNAP beneﬁts balance through an app called Fresh EBT. Diana was used to calling the 1-800 number on the back of her EBT card and going through an automated phone system to hear her SNAP balance. With the app, where she could check her balance at any time, it was a relief to not have to call and “sit there and listen to all the blah blah blah and punch in all the numbers and just sit there.” Diana now uses the app at least ﬁve or six times a week. Sometimes her husband asks how much they have left, and since an accident has left her with short-term memory loss, she just opens the app to tell him. She always checks her balance before going to the store, and as she ’s leaving, to make sure the transaction went through and that she ’s budgeting for the month. In addition to the convenience, Diana likes that Fresh EBT doesn ’t make her “feel stupid” the way other things online do. (She has tried, unsuccessfully, to use her bank’s mobile app.) In 2014, as part of a technology fellowship at the Robin Hood Foundation, I set out to apply for SNAP at the Human Resources Administration oﬃce in Brooklyn, New York. I joined the line of people waiting to meet a caseworker and ﬁll out the same application. I noticed that people were doing what most of us do when we have an hour to wait—they were on their smartphones, killing time. Here was a tool that almost everyone had and could do what we were all waiting in line to complete with the caseworker. I later found similar challenges when we learned that most EBT cardholders call a 1-800 number in order to check their EBT balance, rather than checking their balance through an app. The problem wasn’t hardwarestudies by the Pew Research Center show that not only do most low-income Americans have a smartphone, one in four actually rely on a smartphone as their only access to the Internet. And Black and Latinx adults are more likely to rely only on smartphones, and less likely to have access to broadband Internet.2 The problem was software. Why weren’t technology companies building the apps and tools to make it easier and faster for people to use their smartphones to access and manage go

FAQs

What problem does Propel’s app aim to solve for EBT cardholders?

It helps families manage SNAP and EBT benefits more easily through a smartphone app, reducing reliance on phone systems and fragmented tools.

How does the app support users’ day-to-day needs?

Users can check SNAP balances and transaction history, save money via coupons, and find job postings; the statement also emphasizes budgeting and transaction confirmation.

Why did Propel rename Fresh EBT to Providers?

The rename reflects feedback from users who do not identify as “EBT recipients” and instead see themselves as providers, while positioning the product as a secure, trusted banking experience.

Sep 19, 2026

Upload by Rhys