Give out "commodities."
Dried beans and peas, rice, canned tuna, peanut butter, flour, corn meal, powdered milk, raisins, cheese, maybe some other canned foods. I suppose these were purchased from farmers or food processors by the government and given out monthly. This was subsistence food. You might not eat royally, but you would eat well enough to keep body and soul together. That is what was done back in the 1960's.
I remember it well because I had relatives on "welfare" who got these government commodities. Some of the items they "wouldn't eat." These items were given to my mother by the relative and we ate them. (Our menu choices at home were "take it or leave it.")
If anyone is truly in need of the food and assistance, they will take the commodities. If they refuse this type of assistance, then they aren't in that much need. It's pretty hard to trade your dried beans or rice for drugs, too.
I suspect that going back to the commodities would decrease the amount of $$ spent on "food assistance" dramatically.