Well, part of the issue is that the congregations operate very independently. Any one individual church or congregation is run by a board. Each has their own programs that I've seen. It's not like St. Patrick where one woman and Monsignor Slattery used the network to get started and make it work. All you needed was one person willing to do the collecting in a parish asking her friends across the Bridge table and viola! And then, there's the St. Vincent de Paul which is massive and is now operating in some parts of the county in cooperation with parishes in the city where the actual indigent are.
From what I've seen, protestant churches, at least here, are very much their own entities. The Lutherans are probably the most inter-connected. There is one evangelical guy here who runs a shelter with a lot of programs, but he's also big time into alternative energy and takes every opportunity to embarrass the city (on purpose) that he can. I'm sure there are many efforts that fly under the radar. And the Salvation Army, which does very good work.
As to Tax-Chick's point on parishioner banding together - your parish is supposed to be, at least to me, an extended family and that's what you do for family. In my home parish, much of what was mentioned is standard operating procedure.
These are both great reports!
Our church also cooperates with other churches in supplying workers each month for the local food bank.
They stock the received groceries and then sometimes give out 40-60 (rough estimate) food boxes.