You can check various local groups to find families that need help. Then you can help directly. We did that one year. We bought clothes and toys for a family's kids, and bought them a load of groceries too. It was a single mother, a trailer full of kids, and nothing in the refrigerator but some margarine and a bottle of water. It was sad.

You can also have fun with the people bumming money outside of stores. I saw one guy begging for money outside of a grocery store. I asked him what he wanted money for. He said he wanted to buy food. I knew he probably wanted some wine, so I asked him what he needed in particular. He was caught off guard and named a food item. I dragged his butt into the store, bought the item, and handed it to him. He was totally confused. It was the best $2 I ever spent. :)