If you saw a bin at the supermarket labelled "Cigarette Bank donations" would you throw a packet of fags into it? You see, I sat outside a foodbank for over an hour recently and observed how many of the 'clients' smoked (no, I wasn't spying - just waiting for someone who I had given a lift to). People had money for cigarettes but not for food.
Now, given the logistics of packing and stacking food items, the difficulties of storing perishables, wouldn't it just be a damn sight easier and more efficient to have cigarette banks?
Not a soul in Christendom would support the idea.
And that's why we have state-funded welfare. Money to fund welfare would never be given over voluntarily if people saw directly how it was being used. So the money has to be forced out of people through taxation.
Spoiler – Topical Toon – Matt Davies
36 minutes ago