Serving up more than a meal at shelter on Christmas Day
Will Hayward visited a homeless shelter in Cardiff on Christmas Day to see how a community rallies round those who need a little extra cheer at this time of year
IF you head down to Cardiff’s Dumballs Road, you will come across the Huggard day centre for homeless people.
It is open 365 days a year and can accommodate 53 clients. Here, 120 people were able to relax and enjoy a warm Christmas dinner yesterday thanks to hardworking volunteers and staff at the centre.
Kitchen supervisor Louise Morris, 48, co-ordinated this year’s feast. In what was her second year as a supervisor, she said: “They are having prawn cocktail, chicken and vegetable soup, pâté, beef or turkey, six veg as well as pigs in blankets.
“I love it here - there is never a dull moment! It is great, you can see people are excited and look forward to the day.”
One of the people using the service on Christmas Day was 26-year-old Josh Chamberlain. Josh said: “I was homeless in Cornwall and there is much less support down there. I ended up sleeping under a tree for three days.
“I want to pay tribute to the Huggard - they have helped me a lot.
“The staff here are great, they have a tough job and they tailor the help to individuals.”
Josh says it is hard to put across the plight of homelessness in conversation but has written several moving poems about his experiences.
Plenty of people at the Huggard want to praise Khaleel Alale, 29.
He has worked at the centre for four years as a support worker, and can end up doing all sorts through the role.
He said: “It can be anything. Everyone is individual so have to cater for whatever they need.
“That could be signposting or perhaps they just need an arm around them – it varies day to day. You have to build a rapport with an individual quickly and everyone is different.
“Clients do appreciate you working Christmas, people who were here last year do remember if you worked!
“The hardest part of the job is when you think you have helped some move on the next stage of their life but then they slip back through the net.
“Overall it is incredibly rewarding though.”
Some people have volunteered at the Huggard for years, but others are newbies. Freelance stage manager Ailsa Bonner, 27, is working on the Beauty and the Beast the pantomime at Cardiff’s New Theatre.
She is from Lincoln, but has lived in Cardiff for six years and met her husband at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. “This is my first time volunteering here,” she said. “It was just me and my husband this year for Christmas, so we thought this would be a nice opportunity to help people for a couple of hours.
“Today has been lovely. All the new people had been brought in before for an induction.
“I think a lot of people are more aware of a rise in homelessness and there is no such thing as typical homeless people.”