Of course your initial point is a fair one.

Not sure there are any retailers supplying ‘biftas’, but the food voucher scheme is something I hadn’t heard of and seems like a good potential solution.

Tbh...whether a beggar has a dog or not makes no difference at all to me, but I have to concede that - simply because of the time involved - I’m more likely to give cash than food/drink and I never give to those who congregate around cash points (remember them?) looking vaguely menacing.