I think the saying is "missing the forest for the trees.[1]"

Referring someone to another food bank or resource is not addressing or owning the immediate problem, which is what the experiment showed. Those organizations failed at their primary objective and instead of re-evaluating why they failed they hid behind process and procedure and how they were being tricked since it wasn't a "real" problem.

There was a proper way to handle this situation as anyone who has worked or called into customer service or tech support where their issue was addressed no matter what the internal structure of the organization was.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/miss%20the%20fore...

"Wood for the trees" is how I know it, since "wood" has a double meaning of a small forest and the material.