It is shocking to me that in the United States of America, over 40 million people are unable to feed themselves. I don’t think I can ever fully comprehend that.

A large portion could still feed themselves.

What food assistance does is allow someone spend less of an already scarce time and energy budget on food preparation. You can eat for cheap if you make major components in bulk, but it all adds up. Assistance lets people buy their way out of some or all of that effort and reallocate it to keeping their lives moving forward, hopefully to a point where they don't need assistance.

Also: sometimes an easy snack is nice when you've been eating cheap for months.