SNAP solves a very real and very immediate problem -- that of feeding people who cannot buy food with their own resources.  These are real people, from infants to very old, working people, disabled people, those disadvantaged by societal expectations they can't meet, et., etc., etc.  I spent the first month of food bank (SNAP and local charity funded) volunteer service in shock, meeting clients and helping them obtain VERY LITTLE food that needed to last them a month.  

Familiarity along with empathy really do help achieve genuine "charity" -- the virtue you preach about interminably.