Especially vulnerable families also get cash. They can withdraw $174 per month in cash, to spend anywhere, on whatever they need most.

Next month, all the different agencies that give cash will be combining forces to use the same bank card. The food comes from the World Food Program. The cash comes from either the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or the Lebanon Cash Consortium, which is a collaboration of several private relief groups, led by Save the Children. Unicef also gives cash to families who need it to keep warm in the winter.

Many humanitarian groups in Lebanon help with sanitation systems and other in-kind assistance. Many run schools, or provide skills or business training. The cash is intended to address (a little; it’s not really enough to live on) refugees’ most urgent problems: What’s for dinner? Where am I sleeping?

“There is nothing that could replace cash,” said Alan Moseley, the Lebanon country director for the International Rescue Committee, a member of the Lebanon Cash Consortium. “If we provided shelter materials, clothing, food or direct rent subsidies, it would be more costly to deliver and people would be getting things they don’t necessarily need.”

Research comparing cash and in-kind aid in four countries found that cash allowed more people to be helped for the same money, as many as 23 percent more.

Providing cash is also much faster than sending food, which can take months to arrive. Cash is flexible. It reduces waste. It protects dignity — especially important for people who have lost almost all control over their lives. “People prefer to make decisions for themselves,” said Mosely. And there is overwhelming evidence that people do not spend cash on alcohol and cigarettes.

Cash has particular advantages for refugees, who are sometimes on the move. A cash card travels better than grain, buckets and blankets.