Not being an american I have a question about your food banks
I see photos of long lines at food banks
How do you decide who qualifies for food bank assistance
Around here
Salvation army handles most food assistance which collects food items or money
No idea how they decide who qualifies
We have once a day soup kitchens, mostly operated by church groups, mostly single men come.
Time I went I so no families. How they are screened I have no idea
Might be more help that I don't know about, although I think social services does a lot of directing people to help lines
We have farmers that donate unsold produce to food trucks which make the rounds. You can donate money or get free produce. Produce may not meet specs for grocery store, as it goes over the grader, but is okay, otherwise
Example: small potatoes or large potatoes with small knobs.
i cannot tell you how they decide. each food bank decides for itself. they are not connected to any big federal program, so there are no consistent rules. (this has changed over the years).
so here locally, you just go and sign up. they might ask your income (not sure the limit here locally). and then once a month you can go get a box of food.
the tucson food bank is a mix of private and public. the county govt provides the facility. they use mostly volunteer labor. i have occasionally gone as a volunteer worker with a group from mom's church and they spend a saturday morning packing boxes. the food is donated by multiple sources.
there is also a different organization, (interreligious organization) that operates a food bank. they do not have rules about income. anyone can go there once a month and get a box. mostly it is seniors , or single moms with their kids. i have known of someone who goes there once in a while.
back in the 80's it was different. i went to college in a small town. the food bank there gave out govt commodity boxes. it would be from usda programs. (like if the govt ends up with honey because the beekeeper had a govt loan, and does not pay the loan back, just lets the govt have the honey. so the govt sometimes gave food items to various programs). the food box might include a large thing of peanut butter. or a large block of cheese. sometimes these items had a big white plain label that just said USDA . in a small town in 1981 there were NO jobs available for a student who wants to work part time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_bank
A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food directly with their own food pantries.