A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD from Southampton has fed 20 to 40 homeless people every Sunday since her birthday.

Elle Holdaway provides those living on the city’s streets with bread rolls, chocolate, tomatoes, cookies, cakes and brioches, alongside her mother Lisa.

The idea came to mind after spotting a homeless person asleep in a doorway and then witnessing her mother refuse to give another homeless person money - which Elle “went nuts” about, and said that she wanted to give them food.

It costs them £20 a week to provide for homeless people. In the last seven months, Elle has made friends with them.

She said: “I wanted them to have food so that I know they have full tummies, and I am quite excited about doing it.

“They’re really happy and sometimes eat it straight away. I want to do this forever.”

A truck which delivers food to homeless people does not run on Sundays, so the seven-year-old and her mother decided to be their food providers on that day at 11am - when the “homeless wake up and want food”.

Elle’s mother Lisa said: “She is absolutely passionate about making sure they’re not hungry and Elle has got no idea how amazing it is as a 7-year-old to be doing this. Usually, humanity is taken away from homeless people but Elle goes and asks them how they are.”

She added: “It’s Elle’s dream to get one child to do it from each school. We want this to be huge and want someone to help build us a website.”

Hampshire’s leading homelessness charity Society of St James said that “children should never approach homeless people on their own without supervision”.

Operations Director of the charity Mike Taylor said: “We always love to see people being generous to the homeless. The best way to support homeless people is to donate money to charities. Providing sustenance to them really helps them in the short term, but there are also charities like us that are working with homeless people to provide them with accommodation.”

Follow Elle’s journey at https://www.instagram.com/ellesangellittlestar/.