To improve the utilization of relief, reduce various losses and alleviate the suffering of survivors, how to use mathematical programming methods to optimize relief distribution strategy is a critical issue urgent to be solved currently. The current status of mathematical programming models for relief distribution was analyzed according to the criteria of objective quantity and intergovernmental relationships. An overview of the algorithms to solve the relief distribution optimization models was conducted. The future directions of the relief distribution optimization problem were summarized and pointed out. Research indicates that the establishment of the optimization support framework of relief distribution is necessary. And it is necessary that:the relief distribution optimization model is extended from single-objective programming to multiple-objective programming, the research viewpoint of relief distribution issue is changed from horizontal intergovernmental relationship to vertical one, the development from the certain condition based relief distribution optimization problem to the uncertain condition based one, the change from traditional relief distribution problem to the one with sustainable development idea, the design of solutions from using exact algorithm to using heuristic one, and applying new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) such as big data, digital twin and blockchain to develop relief distribution models.