The part about welfare for those not of their faith was just in the news due to the way we do block grants to states to fund welfare services.. the state of Utah largely hands off their program work to the LDS Church which is pretty unfortunate when they make support contingent on joining their church, going so far to tell people they won't be provided with support that's Federally required unless they get baptized into the church.
Actually, the church's policy is to help everyone regardless of their religious affiliation, and anyone can get food and other help from the storehouses mentioned in the article. The help sometimes includes even cash, but it's far from just a spend-this-however-you-want blank check. That money typically comes from local donations, so the people administering the relief have an obligation to be careful about it.
No doubt there are some inconsistencies in how it gets handed out, and it's unfortunate that apparently some people had some experiences that included deviations from the church's policy, but for every person in that article with a bad experience you can easily find 1000 people who were blown away that the church helped them without any sort of pressure to join that church.
(fwiw, the Salt Lake Tribune has been writing stuff like this for 150 years - sometimes it adds value, but often it's disingenuous)
The Tribune went bankrupt and was bought by a prominent LDS member in 2016 - not sure you can discount their stories from 2021 based on the bias the originally owners clearly had in the 1800’s. It’s a nonprofit these days but Huntsman is still chairman of the board.
Due to the extent of Church operations and the ongoing costs, they feel it is wise to save for a rainy day (as they also advise others). More details in my comment elsewhere on this page.
Having lived through the dot-com bust, my wife and I around the same time (20+ years ago), began to set some funds aside for the "rainy day" of not if, but _when_ I might lose my job in tech, given the often volatile nature of the industry. We've been fortunate not to have to need to dip into those funds for that purpose over that time, but I think it's a wise practice, one that the church teaches, and follows.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/12/02/utah-makes-welfare-so...