The problem in America derives from politics. There are two main issues.
The first is that politicians are selected by the rich. Since a Supreme Court Ruling (Citizens United), unnamed donors are able to give infinite money to political campaigns. So the rich buy the politicians and then the politicians decrease regulation and increase subsidies for the rich people's companies who elected them.
The second is that there is lots of aid and available resources but the government makes it hard to access this aid. Part of the government (the Republicans) doesn't want this aid to exist so they purposely make the administration of the aid very difficult to get. It becomes a full time job just getting free things creating a cycle of poverty and dependency. You can see the Republican party doing this with the US Postal Service right now. They mess up the program and then claim it doesn't work.
For America to improve, money must be eliminated from elections. We need a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Next, we must make programs simple and easy to obtain the benefit from. It shouldn't take multiple hours a day to get "free" food. This is why some people support the idea of a universal basic income. It would help the poor the most with the least amount of government overhead.