Young people will buy goods but not giving to the community

We were buying boba at a pop up store when a man showed up. He introduced himself as a veteran and showed us a pamphlet of a school for elders/veteran (?) and asked if we have cash to donate. We just didn’t have any cash on us (I literally just carry my card when going out nowadays) and he started raising his voice. He said something along the way “you young people buy these stuffs (pointing at the store) and wouldn’t support veteran / give back to the community…” then walked away.

We know these things happen, but when it does, we just didn’t know what to do. We did feel bad, one friend told the man over and over “we’re sorry, but we don’t have any cash on us.” But there are so many people like this on the street, do we give them every time?!

I guess my questions are:

• have you ever experienced something like this?
• what was your reaction? (feeling/action)
• your take on this story or in general
• is the government doing anything to support veterans, homeless people, etc.? what are some of the problems in dealing with this issues?