Some recipients are allowed a cash allowance as well as food assistance. Both are loaded on the card and as far as I know the amount of times one can electronically use the cash portion is limited to a few times then they are charged a fee by the Government. The money that is dedicated to food assistance cannot be used for anything other than food and can not be withdrawn in cash. Obviously limiting how many times cash can be used without a fee is to encourage the withdrawl of all cash benefits at once.