I'll guess that you'll exclude the 80% of welfare recipients who are children.  They're required to be in school if they're old enough.  There are a few adults who also are excluded, mainly those with temporary disabilities and mothers of babies under 3 months old.  Other adults are required to be working or provide proof that they're diligently seeking work.  If they are unsuccessfull in seeking work, they're required to do volunteer activities. 

Taking care of one's own children is not an exemption for welfare moms.  While being a stay-at-home-mom is often referred to as a desireable thing- remember the flap over Ann Romney never having held a job?- that does not apply to welfare moms.  The rule is that they must find work outside the home and arrange for someone else to provide child care.  The same is true for welfare moms who are caretakers for a disabled family member.  Welfare rules require that the welfare moms go to work and find caretakers for the disabled relatives, too.

The welfare system does not provide a huge supply of volunteers, since most adults on welfare receive assistance for a rleatively short time.  I haven't checked the data in a couple of years, but I followed it very closely for the first dozen years after national welfare reform started.  Most welfare adults- nearly all were women- entered the system due to a short term crisis and were off welfare within 2-5 months and never went on the system again.

I'll also reassure you that the Food Stamps program has its own work requirements.  Able-bodied adults who don't have children are nearly totally excluded.  They may receive Food Stamps for only three months during any 36 month period unless they are working at least 20-hours per week.

The third welfare program is Medicaid.  Most participants are children, elders over 65, people who receive Social Security disability benefits and pregnant women.  A very, very small number of other parents also have access to Medicaid by way of the cash welfare system.  A major component of ObamaCare will open Medicaid to non-disabled people who are under age 65 and who are not parents.  Most of the target population is people working for low pay, but I haven't yet learned how- or if- job-search requirements will apply to them.

Finally, I strongly agree that prisoners should work to pay for the cost of their incarceration.  In Florida, in addition to some farming, there has been work making car license tags, plus furniture and office supplies for state agencies.  Regrettably, the Bush and Scott administrations have been shifting those to no-bid contracts with private companies, which is increasing the cost to tax payers of prisons and reducing vocational traning for prisoners.  Farming and cutting grass along the highways does little to prepare prisoners to find work when they return to their hometowns.