unless brute force was done, it might be a cold boot, usb exploit or bootloader exploit by physically accessing the storage.

And maybe the physical thing you provide to that person may only last for an hour, but the memory of something a kind person did for them will (hopefully) persist as well

I don't know if you have been in India but I have. Begging has become a profession there. So most likely they won't recognize individual donors. Also what OP mentioned is a real problem. Easily you'll meet more than 20 homeless people at once around you in any big railway station.

From what I understand, shitty politics and rising inequality is the reason behind this.

You can try asahi linux on the macbook :)