I don’t know if your observation can be universally generalized but I would guess that the short answer is that people may excessively use utilities through carelessness but the margin of error is small. Food however can have a wildly different budget from person to person and is much easier for the giver to feel taken advanatage of.

Example: If someone asks for $200 to pay their electric bill and I later find out that they run their AC cooler than I do, that’s maybe a little annoying but the difference it made in their bill is maybe 10-20%.

If someone asks for that same $200 for food, they may blow through that eating fast food for a couple of days instead of getting a cart of groceries that might have lasted two weeks. It is really easy to quickly waste a lot of money on low quality food. Here I as the giver am way more likely to be upset that my generosity was ‘wasted’ on needlessly expensive junk food instead of making an effort to stretch the funds responsibly (imo). I speak from experience.

The uncertainty that one scenario brings relative to the other is probably part of why people are hesitant to just pour cash into a situation where someone needs food.