How would you deal with this situation?

It sounds like he has enough to eat so maybe not even hungry and just seeking comfort. Can you offer him something else like stickers? I don’t know if that would be a good idea. It’s a sad situation sorry you have to witness that

I read an article about something similar of children who come from poverty stricken backgrounds. There was a group of 100 families/children participating in documentation of their life over a time period and every week they attended a session where there was free buffet food readily available for everyone to eat. They witnessed babies as young as 1 hiding food in their nappies and socks to eat later and older children 3+ hiding food such as bread to feed their younger siblings 🥹

Is there any way you could maybe space out this child’s snacks without it being known? I mean like assuming you put 5 things in the snack bowl, hold back 1 so when he comes to ask for more, you can give it to him in order to satiate his desire to ask for more?

Or would any church volunteers be happy to donate some fruit weekly to give to him instead as a more discrete option? Hopefully once he realises food is readily available and he won’t starve, it won’t be a problem long term.

As long as they are not wasting food, I am not of the idea of denying food to children. If this is a bad habit, at least he is confident to ask for more.

If he is the only kid asking for more, you could give him more once and warn him snack time is over. I wouldn't worry about other children because maybe they don't even want.

You could also prepare snacks before children arrive and clean up immediately to make sure there is nothing in sight after they finish the first round and when he comes you just say sorry, there is nothing left.

Super common!!!

Maybe don’t give him a bowl. Give him one and tell him he needs to ask xyz for the next one, and then when he does that he gets to ask someone else for another one.
If that happens too fast “you have to ask xyz for the next one when the timer goes off (set for 3-5 min)”

So it’s the same amount but he gets like a scavenger hunt for his stuff.

Oh, you mentioned he is the only one of all the children who asks for more, so I assumed he was the only one, not all of them.

But if you don't want to find gentle ways to tell him 'no', I don't see how you could stop it. 😕

Does he eat the food right away when he gets extra or does he stock pile it or try to take it home? Maybe he’s anxious and uses eating to cope? It very sad and I hope he gets some help. Maybe therapy even though he’s so young.

Have a chat with all the volunteers so everyone is on the same page. If some volunteers give him more, he will keep trying. I would just keep explaining him that every child just gets one portion.