C arl used to own pubs – several of them – and a string of hotels. Then two years ago, rising costs forced him into bankruptcy. Now he sleeps on the beach in summer, and in winter sits in an all-night McDonald’s nursing a single cup of coffee.

Carl’s daughters are in a different part of the country with his ex-wife. To maintain the illusion that he lives a normal life, Carl is careful only to video-call them from the local Wetherspoon’s with a meal and a drink carefully positioned in shot. That way, he reasons, he looks like a man with somewhere to be.

But something his daughters do not know is that Carl can only get the meal thanks to a WhatsApp group quietly buying food and drink for homeless and vulnerable people across in the UK.

Chris Illman, second left, the founder of the group, at a Wetherspoon’s event in Birmingham, where 300 meals were distributed to homeless and vulnerable people.

“This group has literally been a lifesaver,” he says, his voice breaking.…