When we think of Christmas, a phrase that often come to mind is “the season of goodwill” - a time for charity, helping each other out and good deeds.

But what happens once the festive period has ended? Meet the group who are not only trying to make sure that the homeless and impoverished can enjoy Christmas, but that they are looked after 365 days of the year.

Helping Our Homeless Wales, which has its headquarters in Builth Wells, provides a variety of help to people in need in Wales.

From Cardiff to Swansea, Barry to Bridgend and Powys, the group aims to help people living below the poverty line with use of food hampers, luncheon clubs, their pantry and their charity shop - as well as soup runs and helping local schools.

Founder Sarah Mason said they are currently gearing up to make sure that their supported families have provisions for a Christmas dinner and so the children will have presents on Christmas morning.

Sarah said: “We are obviously looking at the moment to make sure there are provisions in place for Christmas, because if there isn’t, then we need to put something in place to make sure nobody goes without Christmas dinner.

“Currently, we’ve put a feel out there to say ‘Is anybody offering Christmas lunches? Is anybody offering delivery or collection?’ If not, is there volunteers who can offer delivery to two or three people? Let’s make sure nobody goes hungry at Christmas.”

The charity group has also been working with the local schools with the aim of making sure that all the children on the vulnerable list receive a Christmas chocolate selection box.

Sarah said that they have so far collected more than 100 selection boxes ready to give to the children who need them, and that they are also working with local families-in-need to make sure that no children go without any presents.

“Without going through the list, we’ve probably got 23 or 24 referrals at the moment for children under 18 who will go without presents this year without the support of us - not just us but I’m sure there’s other agencies involved,” she said.

“We deliver over 50 hampers a week locally. Our food bank is amazing, the local food bank is amazing, but we appreciate the pressures they’re under to increase and we try to fill the gaps that maybe they can’t fill so there’s a delivery service and stuff like that.”

The charity helps to feed around 30 people a week with its luncheon clubs - whether its via collection, delivery or a sit-down meal.

Passionate Sarah said: “It’s all about nutrition, and it’s about avoiding the escalation of the higher level services so if somebody’s getting a nice nutritious meal, their mental health might be more stable so they might not need to access the district nurse so they might not need to access social service.

“If we can keep people on a level par it’s a much better service we can offer.”

When asked about the impact of Covid-19 and the pandemic on the service offered by the charity and whether it is noticeable, Sarah responded “absolutely”.

Before Coronavirus and restrictions hit Wales, Sarah said the group did around one or two hampers a month for families in need in Powys, whereas now they’re doing between 50 and 60 hampers per week.

She said: “Our entire focus and our concept has changed, we’ve got a drop-in service where people can walk through the door and get a hot meal every day. They can come in and access washing and drying facilities, they can come in and access computer services, they can come in and access a hamper.

“The services that we offer are tailor made to people not being able to access things. Unfortunately with Covid as well, the restrictions are on travel and people don’t want to travel, and so the more services we can offer locally, the better it is for people.”

The amazing charity is powered by volunteers with only six dedicated volunteers including Sarah.

“We have six dedicated volunteers, which is not a lot for the amount of work we do, and we’re desperate for more - whether that be in our local charity shop, in our hub or food pantry, for luncheon club, for collections or deliveries.

“Monday to Saturday, we are open 10am until 1pm for hampers, so the food pantry. Thursday is luncheon club. Every single day from Monday to Saturday the charity shop opens to raise money so that we can sustain it, and obviously we’re always looking for people to collect donations, drop-off donations.

“We also have a couple of supermarkets that help us with donations of food that’s near it’s sell-by date, we need collectors for that, but currently we only have six volunteers in Powys which is really, really hard and I don’t think people understand the hardship we’ve got around here to fulfil the need.”

“The volunteers are amazing, absolutely amazing - the charity shop is open six day s a week and without them we couldn’t it.”

Sarah said the charity is “very well supported” by the Co-Op in Builth Wells as well as the Aldi in Llandrindod Wells.

The group accepts home-delivery shopping donations from any supermarkets to their headquarters - a good option for those who are not able to drop off deliveries.

Sarah said: “We are very well supported by our local Co-Op, Builth Wells, they are magnificent, and we are also very heavily supported by Aldi in Llandrindod Wells.

“If anybody wants to donate or support, we are happy - they can do Tesco, they can do an online order for food to have it delivered to our hub - they don’t have to just think about they’ve got to drop it off, we’ve got companies and individuals who are dropping it off via online ordering and that’s fab - it all goes to people that need it. We’re quite happy to publicise anybody that supports us.”

Helping Our Homeless Wales started six and a half years ago when Sarah saw a post from her former paper boy on social media and the aim to create 150 goody bags for rough sleepers.

The ex-army woman said: “I was based in London and I could never walk past a homeless person without stopping to talk to them or buy them a sandwich, that’s thing. When I moved back to Wales, I noticed that one of my previous paper boys posted on social media that he was going to do a reverse calendar so instead of taking a chocolate, he was going to put something in a box to give to others, so I contacted my paper boy and said ‘that’s a wonderful idea, do you realise that I collect all year around to give to charities - like homeless charities - would you like additional items?’

“We met in the December and I filled his car with umpteen boxes of goodies and clothes and blankets and hats, gloves etc and we have a conversation and I said ‘do you know what? We could change things around here - would you like to try to do something a bit more special?’”

The pair talked it over and agreed to meet again the following September or October to organise a fundraiser to create the goodie bags to take to the cities.

When the time came, the group had four members and they ran a raffle and bingo to raise money for the bags which would later be distributed on the streets of Cardiff.

Sarah said: “We were quite overwhelmed if I’m honest because in Christmas, going back six years and pre-Covid, we found that people were very giving at Christmas because they were buying for other people and so they were giving to the homeless.

“A lot of homeless people were saying ‘we don’t need your box because we’ve been given so much, can we give you these gloves? Can we give you these hats? Because we’ve got no way of storing them.’

“So what it gave to us, as a very new group, was an insight into talking to homeless people and finding out what they need and what happens after Christmas.

“They told us that the run up to Christmas was amazing because people were so open and honest and giving and loving and caring, but then when January hit - and I would suspect their bills came in and it was very cold and there was not a lot of money left - people then shut the doors and were focused on their own lives, so the homeless were almost like a forgotten person and that’s when they said to us ‘we need you in January or February because nobody is there for us’.”

From there, the group extended their campaign from the original Christmas campaign in 2015 until the following February or March, however the charity was set up and is still going to this day.

Sarah said:” That’s how the charity was set-up - it went from this idea of ‘we’ll give out these gift bags - 150 of them, that’s our good deed from Powys - and that’s how it started , and then we got to meet the people on the street and we became quite hooked to be honest. Obviously, six and a half years later and we’re still here.”

In the beginning, there were four volunteers who started with Helping Our Homeless Wales, however the other three now work “more behind the scenes” for various reasons and external commitments.

The group has since evolved so that it helps those who are homeless or living in poverty and not just rough sleepers.

While a person of no fixed abode is considered to be homeless, they are not considered to be a rough sleeper unless they are physically sleeping on the streets, and some of the people who do have a roof over their heads do still live in poverty due to the costs of living, gas and other household utilities.

Sarah said: “We’ve diversified so much from where we were six and a half years ago to where we are today. That’s how it started - moving forward to Covid, the challenge expanded within the last six years. When I started, it was Cardiff based because we didn’t really have a problem in Powys - we now have teams in Cardiff, Bridgend, Barry Island and Swansea as well as Powys.

“Our focuses and our constitutions have changed slightly because the need changes in the area, in Powys is the headquarters where we run an arts and crafts club for anyone on a Monday night, so that’s for isolation/mental health/poverty - there’s no stigma, you can come and access it.

“On Thursday, we offer a luncheon club and it’s a three course meal and again, you can offer a donation if you want - if you’ve got no money, there’s no stigma, you can come have your meal chat to the volunteers, it’s free. We offer a food pantry six days a week where you can come between 10am and 1pm, no referral, and we will help you with food to help you get to your next benefit or next pay day.”

Sarah said the group had never envisioned the charity would be where it is now - especially with the Coronavirus pandemic and the changes it brought to the charity.

As well as re-evaluating the charity and “changing its constitution”, the group didn’t imagine it would be opening a luncheon club or food pantry - especially as back then it was focused on the cities.

Sarah said: “Reading about how poverty and homelessness has increased so much locally, we’ve seen that, we’ve noticed it and it’s commendable that people are able to report that so people can actually see the facts because it needs to be out there, because we have a hidden homeless.

“You’re not going to come into Llandrindod or Builth Wells or anywhere locally and see lots of people sitting on the streets with blankets. It doesn’t happen - it’s a rarity, where as if you go to the big cities, you expect to see that.

“However, we do have a significant population who do not have fixed abodes and we need to recognise that and we need to support that and we need to enable them to move forward to live happy and successful lives, and if we can get the public on board and we can move forward and work as a community, then that can happen.

“It’s not going to get better for the foreseeable future, there are still job losses with people in severe poverty - you know, I’m dreading January/February when the bills come out because I don’t think people are going to be able to afford them.

“With fuel poverty, we have one of the highest rates in Powys and that’s really sad that we’re in this predicament and with the increase of bills going up higher and higher and higher, and we’re stuck in this situation where people think you have to buy your kids this and you have to do this and you have to do that.

“Christmas Day is one day, it’s not a whole life, and people spend their next two of three years paying for it but they can’t afford it. It’s so hard, we need to be able to change the situation that we’re in so that we become a much more manageable situation - we’ve got many, many families we’re supporting this Christmas - we’ve got a room in our HQ in Builth where it’s filled with magnificent gifts and pyjamas and gifts and toys and next week we’ll be sorting through them so that we can distribute them to the families so that the children won’t go without presents this Christmas.

“That’s the reality that we’re having whereas six years ago, I didn’t even know this existed - I just thought everything around here was great, and that’s why we focused on the cities but what Covid has taught the charity is that we have a great many problems locally.

“We support our local schools with food hampers every week, we support our local schools with poverty period packs, and this will not stop - it’s for anybody who needs to access information or support, but we will make sure that no child goes without, we will do our utmost to ensure everybody has got what they need in the future.”

The group currently has more than 45 families asking for help this Christmas - almost doubled from the 27 families who needed help at the end of last year without including this year’s final referrals before the new year.

While the group is asking for items like UHT milk, cereal, porridge pots and tins of meat - which are always in high demand - in the run up to Christmas they are also looking for items to make their Christmas hampers such as turkeys, chickens and fresh vegetables.

Anybody who wants to volunteer for Helping Our Homeless Wales or who is interested in helping out can contact Sarah either over the phone or via Facebook.

Sarah said: “They can ring me, they can ring the homeless phone number, or they can message the page and we’ve love people to come on board. It’s not about giving days or weeks or months, it’s if they can give an hour.

“If they can go to Aldi and collect our donations on a Thursday or a Monday or a Wednesday, that would be amazing because it means that frees up somebody else then to be in the food pantry, if somebody needs to come to the door to access food.”

To contact Sarah, ring 07775851718 or ring the Helping Our Homeless phone number which is 07955518669. Alternatively, visit their Facebook page @HelpingOurHomelessWales by clicking here to send the team a message.

The Facebook page also had details of items that are specifically needed and the different ways to donate.