Thanksgiving Dinner Shouldn't Come with a Payment Plan
Nearly 1 in 10 Americans ages 18–64 are using Buy Now, Pay Later to purchase groceries. What does that tell us about financial resilience?
Thanksgiving is just weeks away.
For many Americans, it's a time to gather around the table, share a meal, and reflect on what they're grateful for.
But for millions of families, there's another question looming over the holiday:
How are we going to afford the food?
Not the elaborate Thanksgiving feast. The everyday groceries. Milk, eggs, bread, vegetables, and the ingredients needed to put dinner on the table.
And increasingly, Americans are financing those purchases.
When groceries become a debt obligation
In July 2026, the Urban Institute published research revealing a troubling reality about how Americans are managing the rising cost of food.
Its findings, based on a nationally representative December 2025 survey, show that:
Nearly 1 in 10 working-age adults used Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) to purchase groceries.
34.8% of those grocery BNPL users missed a payment.
Nearly 1 in 5 working-age adults used savings not intended for everyday expenses to pay for groceries.
8.7% used credit cards to purchase groceries and did not always make their minimum payments.
Think about what those numbers mean.
We're not talking about families financing vacations, televisions, or holiday gifts.
We're talking about Americans taking on debt to eat.
And for many, the problem isn't simply how to pay for today's groceries. It's how to repay yesterday's groceries while still needing to buy tomorrow's.
Buy Now, Pay Later can be a useful short-term payment tool. But when it becomes necessary to cover basic household needs, it raises a much bigger question about financial security.
Food insecurity isn't always visible
Food insecurity doesn't necessarily look the way we imagine.
It isn't always an empty refrigerator or a visit to a food pantry.
Sometimes it's a parent skipping a meal so their children can eat. Sometimes it's choosing less nutritious groceries, postponing another bill, or spreading a grocery purchase across four payments.
The Urban Institute's March 2026 research found that nearly one in four adults experienced food insecurity in 2025.
That's a sobering statistic as we approach a holiday centered on abundance and gratitude.
And here's what should concern every financial institution:
A household can be current on its loan payments and still be struggling to afford dinner.
Traditional financial health indicators don't always reveal the sacrifices people are making to remain current.
A member might have a strong payment history, an active checking account, and no reported delinquency.
But behind those indicators could be a household using credit to bridge the gap between income and essential expenses.
Financial stability and financial resilience are not the same thing.
Credit unions may already have clues that members need help
This is where credit unions have an important opportunity.
Credit unions have always been about people helping people. And many already have access to financial transaction information that, when used responsibly, could help identify members experiencing financial strain.
Consider some of the patterns that might warrant a closer look:
Recurring payments to Buy Now, Pay Later providers, particularly when paired with other signs of financial stress.
Declining savings balances or frequent transfers from savings to cover ordinary spending.
Overdrafts or insufficient-funds activity occurring alongside essential household expenses.
Growing reliance on short-term credit between paychecks.
None of these signals alone proves that a member is experiencing food insecurity. BNPL transactions, for example, don't necessarily reveal what was purchased.
But together, financial behaviors can reveal patterns worth understanding.
The opportunity is not to judge how members spend their money. It's to recognize when they might need help.
And importantly, credit unions don't need to wait until a loan becomes delinquent to offer that help.
From recognizing financial stress to building financial resilience
Imagine a credit union using existing member data to identify households showing signs of increasing financial pressure.
Instead of sending another generic loan offer, it reaches out with something different:
"Everyday expenses are putting pressure on household budgets. We're here to help you explore ways to create a little more breathing room."
That conversation could open the door to meaningful support.
A credit union might help a member create a realistic spending and cash-flow plan, identify opportunities to reduce costly debt, restructure eligible payments, or begin building a small emergency savings cushion.
It might connect members facing immediate food insecurity with local food banks, community organizations, or available assistance programs.
And as Thanksgiving approaches, it could proactively communicate those resources to the broader membership without requiring anyone to disclose financial hardship.
The goal isn't simply to get a member through one difficult month.
It's to help that member become better prepared for the next unexpected expense.
This is also why we're exploring financial resilience through our CU POWER work at THRIVE: understanding members' financial circumstances, identifying opportunities to help, and measuring whether those actions make a meaningful difference.
But this opportunity doesn't require a new framework or sophisticated technology to begin.
It starts with asking a better question of the information credit unions already have.
What could your credit union do before Thanksgiving?
There are four meaningful steps credit unions can take right now.
1. Recognize the signals. Ask your data or operations team what existing reports can reveal about BNPL activity, recurring short-term obligations, declining savings, or increasing overdrafts. Look for combinations of behaviors rather than assuming one transaction indicates hardship.
2. Reach out with empathy. Develop an optional, supportive financial wellness outreach campaign. Frame the conversation around rising household expenses and available assistance, not assumptions about an individual's financial behavior.
3. Create a financial resilience pathway. Give employees a practical way to help members move from immediate expense relief toward better cash flow, less costly debt, and an emergency savings cushion. Train them to recognize when the most helpful next step is community assistance rather than another loan.
4. Measure what changes. Don't just count the number of members contacted. Look at whether participating members are building savings, reducing overdrafts, improving cash-flow stability, or reporting greater financial confidence over time.
These are opportunities to turn existing information into action, and action into better financial outcomes.
This Thanksgiving, let's think beyond the holiday meal
Thanksgiving reminds us of the importance of community, compassion, and looking out for one another.
Those values aren't seasonal for credit unions. They're foundational.
But the Urban Institute research poses a question worth carrying into every credit union's 2027 planning discussions:
If members are borrowing money to buy groceries, how early can we recognize their financial stress—and what are we doing to help them build lasting resilience?
Food banks and community programs play an essential role in meeting immediate needs. Credit unions can complement that work by helping members strengthen their financial footing over time.
Because the goal shouldn't simply be helping someone afford Thanksgiving dinner.
It should be helping them approach next Thanksgiving with a little less financial anxiety, a little more savings, and a lot more confidence.
That's what people helping people can look like when we turn financial information into meaningful action.
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