mRelief

Dignified, simple access to food assistance for families who need it.

mRelief helps people access the food assistance they are eligible for through a simple, dignified experience. Instead of confusing forms and long lines, mRelief lets families check eligibility and apply for SNAP in minutes, by text or online. mRelief came to us through our Reconstruct Challenge, winning both a Phase 1 and a Phase 2 grant, together totaling $650,000 of support.

Why we backed them

Millions of people who qualify for food assistance never receive it, often because the process is complicated, time-consuming, and stripped of dignity. That gap is not a lack of eligibility. It is a failure of access. When getting help means taking a day off work, standing in line, and navigating paperwork built for the system rather than the person, many give up.

mRelief removes that friction. It treats applicants as people worthy of a fast, respectful experience, and in doing so unlocks benefits that were theirs all along. This is exactly what we mean by holding access and agency together, meeting a basic human need in a way that affirms dignity rather than eroding it.

From the Reconstruct Challenge to real scale

mRelief is one of the clearest examples of our innovation work paying off. Through the Reconstruct Challenge, we help organizations test and prove ideas that expand access, then back the ones that work with follow-on funding.

mRelief won our 2019 challenge and received support across two phases. That funding let mRelief expand into Kentucky and prove the efficacy of its model. Its Louisville-area pilot alone unlocked more than $3.5 million in SNAP benefits for families. Since then, mRelief has taken the Kentucky-tested model to more than a dozen states and helped families access over $1 billion in benefits.

As mRelief Executive Director Zareena Meyn put it, our grant "enabled us to expand into Kentucky and make the case for the efficacy of our application. As a result, mRelief has scaled the Kentucky-tested, dignified SNAP delivery model."

Why it matters to us

mRelief turns a broken, discouraging process into a fast and humane one, and the results speak for themselves: more families fed, more benefits reaching the people they were meant for. Helping launch and scale it through the Reconstruct Challenge is one of the ways we put philanthropic capital to work as risk capital, funding solutions that are impactful, scalable, and enduring.