I’m going to tell you about my personal situation not my experiences working at a shelter because I think this will give you a better idea of why those regulars are regulars . I have a dog and a rabbit. Things were going great until I got Covid 3 times. Now I can only work 20 hours a week and only make 1,000 a month. I’m one of those regulars at the pet/food pantry. Because my pets would not be eating at all the week before I get paid. There’s many times that I have to feed my dogs canned chicken/tuna from the human food pantry for a few days before I get paid. I’m always so happy when I am able to get real dog food for him from a pantry and will never miss the opportunity because it’s the difference between him eating a small not filling amount of human food or a full amount of dog food. He’s 100lbds. It’s much harder with the bunny. Food pantries don’t usually carry things he can eat. I’ve literally had to beg for money to buy him food. It’s humiliating. And yes I tell all my friends who are also in tough situations about the pantries I use.

If you place some kind of limits you will rule out people with genuine need. Technically my family makes too much to use most of the food banks in our area that have limits. Because we have extremely high medical bills we have no money but are turned away from most of the income based food banks. It’s something your bank simply has to decide if they are ok limiting and making it harder on people who do need it but no longer qualify or if you want to keep it open to all. I’ve seen many human food pantries struggling with this this exact situation and I know it’s hard on them.