And, Ernest, I think that "not starving" is the sort of basic human right that shouldn't come with strings attached, at least in a society that is as advanced and wealthy as the USA, so I don't really agree with the first underlined part. I'm not necessarily opposed to setting other sorts of conditions for other transfer payments, but food is just too basic, and just too affordable to provide.
Moreover, means testing is poor public policy in general.
To paraphrase Richard Titmuss (I think it was him anway) a service for the poor will always end up as a poor service.
