I live in NYC, I have never personally done this but I know people who have struggled, and the best thing is to maybe not dress in a suit but your nicest clothes, showered, and groomed enough so people think you’re middle class plus going through one unique moment of poverty and not someone chronically poor… and just go to a food place (not a restaurant, somewhere that sells food… deli, grocery store, maybe even a food cart) ideally in a nice neighborhood. Ask to see the manager or ideally the owner (since they have way more leeway than employees) and without giving this huge sob story, politely ask for food.

They will almost never say no, and in fact you might get lucky and be given a month’s worth of food. It sucks that we have more sympathy for a moment of difficulty for the better off than a lifetime of suffering for the poor but here we are. It reminds me of the state Senator in Wisconsin or Michigan or wherever arguing against free food in schools because kids that don’t get enough sustenance in their youth have a lifetime of reduced intelligence and even charisma and if they gave every kid food, “we’d have no mechanics or bricklayers!”.