AS A former MasterChef contestant, adoption and foster care advocate, entrepreneur and single mother, it's hard to find a definitive label for Lennox Head's Jules Allen.

She radiates strength, the kind that allowed her to care for, and offer her love to, a couple of twin boys with Down Syndrome for months.

That kind of strength that is not limited by good intentions and acts to make others' lives better. Over the past 12 years she has cared for 29 foster children.

Jules Allen is a local hero.

She is mother to four kids: two sons, Jay and Ishy (both 15), and daughters Elisha, 19, and India, 16. But her family is a blend of her own, adopted and foster children.

She still puts together her children's lunch boxes.

It is one of the ways she expresses her love for them, through healthy, delicious food.

"At some point during the day they are reminded that they are loved," she said.

"If I ask you what is the one dish that sums up your childhood, you'll go there straight away. You'll go to a place, a smell that wraps you up like a blanket.

"The kids that come to me have never had that."

Following the birth of her son in 1999, Jules relocated from Melbourne to Lennox Head where she started working in child protection.

It was at this time that she recognised the need for foster carers and started taking children into her home.

After nine years in child protection, Jules moved into working as a counsellor at Shearwater, The Mullumbimby Steiner School.

For the last two years she has run a private practice working with teenagers in crisis and their families.

Now she wants to expand her work to support parents, carers and families of children experiencing trauma.

"I have a Social Science degree and my field is working with traumatised kids. That is my background and I struggle sometimes. Imagine if you had no skills in this area?"

Jules' dedication earned her the Byron Shire Council's Working with Young People Award in 2012.

In addition to counselling, she helped in the rebuilding of a women and children's refuge in the Solomon Islands in 2008 which inspired her to set up the Women And Children's Care Initiative Incorporated (WACCII); a not for profit organisation aimed at providing and supporting refuge for women and children who are victims of abuse and exploitation.

Jules is still executive director of this organisation and is currently working on broadening the focus areas of WACCII.

She became a household name in 2013 when she became a contestant on MasterChef Australia.

"I am very grateful for how much I learned about cooking during MasterChef," she said.

"It was like three years of learning condensed in four months," she added.

It was after MasterChef that she was approached to become an Ambassador for National Adoption Awareness, alongside Deborah Lee-Furness and Hugh Jackman.

She is also Ambassador for Foster Care Australia, the Pyjama Foundation and Brookfarm.

Jules also supports Hagar, a specialist aftercare agency that works with women and children who have survived trafficking and severe abuse in Cambodia, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

Jeep also gave her a role as the Charity Ambassador and continues to offer support to Jules in her many charity roles.

Now, Jules is launching her own brand.

She has released Jules Allen Tea and all profits from this new venture will benefit WACII, Hagar and a new project to teach people in a tight budget to prepare nutritious meals for their families.

"I am not sure how this project is going to shape up, but I do want to support parents to offer the best food for their children even if on a small income," she said.

Jules Allen Tea offers seven types of therapeutic teas.

We asked Jules where does she get all the energy and time to do so much.

"Someone asked me the other day 'What do you do in your spare time?' and I don't feel like I do enough. I actually think I'm quite lazy."

ABC TV's Australian Story followed her every move for two weeks in Lennox Head and another two in Melbourne for a 30-minute program to air this Monday at 8pm.

WATCH IT

Australian Story airs on ABC1 on Monday 8pm and Saturday 12 noon.

ABC 24 repeats the program on Saturday 4.30pm and Sunday 6.30pm.