We have a lot of low income neighbors. I never asked them about their EBT benefits or whether they have any. I do know they have kids.
I have a large commercial rice cooker and right now 200 pounds of rice, 24 restaurant size cans of kidney beans and eight cases of Goya tomato sauce.
Additionally I have over a thousand packets of sazon..... We stand ready to start passing out the plates!
Blessings upon you. You are a good person.
But I doubt any of your neighbors do not have ability to cook their own beans and rice if they have beans and rice. I keep some on hand, along with some powdered milk, all the time for food drives or whatever contingency comes up. I don't think I know a soul who would deny food to a hungry person who asked for it.
The only one who has ever asked me though was a mentally challenged retired doctor with a very comfortable retirement income who was giving all her money away to on line scammers pretending to be celebrities who were in love with her. "Anderson Cooper" took her for over $7,500. (Yes she knew he had been gay but he assured her he had been cured of that.) "Sam Heughan" (Outlanders) asked her to marry him--she accepted--and was enroute to see her several times if she could advance him a few thousand in American money which she forked over. Of course he never ever quite made it to her place but that never seemed to bother her. "Carol King" got her social security number, banking information, and other personal information by 'hiring her as a road manager'. She could work from home of course. The doctor was unphased when shown what the duties of a road manager are and why such a person cannot do that job from home.
I gave her food from our pantry and freezer when she asked. But did not give her the cash she asked for so she could buy her dog a cheeseburger at McDonalds. (She was reported to adult protective services but I don't know if they did anything.)
Then there's the homeless guy who 'doesn't drink' but had a cast on his hand preventing him to use a can opener for food offered by the food bank. Then when given cash, his benefactor had to call the cops when he showed up drunk and dangerously threatening demanding more money.
I once had a job in which we were visited by lots and lots of transients. Each one showing up claiming to be hungry received a food voucher they could use for anything on the menu at a nearby cafe and we would pay the cafe later. Those needing gas were given a voucher to use at a nearby station for enough gas to get them on down the road to the next town. In a year's time, after giving out more than a hundred of these vouchers, one meal voucher was cashed, two gas vouchers were used.
And I am reminded of the story of the man talking with his ultra left teenage neighbor who told him that being rich was evil and she wanted to give whatever she could to the homeless. He told her that if she would rake his leaves, clean the garage and wash his car, he would give her $50 now to give to the homeless.
She thought about that for a moment and then suggested that why don't the homeless rake the leaves, clean the garage, and wash the car and he could give them the $50 directly. (He congratulated her on her conversion to conservatism.)
The point is, if your neighbors actually do show up for a plate of rice and beans, then they almost certainly are hungry. And if they accept your offer of dried beans and rice to cook themselves they are almost certainly hungry--that is the more practical approach probably as they would have more than one meal.
Those who just want money, probably aren't all that hungry.
