Local Focus: ‘Hero’ Neela dishes up thousands of free meals

Neela Neela started cooking free meals for locals in her makeshift kitchen in Taradale, just a week after Cyclone Gabrielle.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, Neelas’s kitchen puts out a thousand meals. The rest of the week, she is making 200 to 350 meals.

Neela moved from Thailand to New Zealand in 2011, having experienced the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

“When the tsunami hit Phuket, everything was gone,” she said. “I lost five friends, five friends died in the tsunami. We can’t find a body.”

After Hawke’s Bay went through its own natural disaster, Neela wanted to help cheer up locals by cooking Thai food for volunteers and families who lost their homes.

Neela and her volunteers post announcements in local community groups on Facebook, where people who need meals pen comments and send messages.

Volunteers pack up the meals and deliver them all around Hawke’s Bay, including to Tangoio, Eskdale, Twyford, Pākōwhai and Puketapu.

The menu changes each day, but traditional Thai foods like green curry, pad thai and ginger stir-fry are the most popular dishes.

In the beginning, Neela did it all herself, but it didn’t take long for others to offer to help.

Retired Napier resident Evelyn Clibborn was looking for a way to help the community: “I saw Neela’s Facebook post [which] said she was cooking and needed help. So, I came to her door. She’s an amazing, very compassionate, caring person.”

Mandy Lovell from Pakipaki started her first day in Neela’s kitchen after seeing a social post.

“I left work a week ago and thought, ‘Why not come to help?’ You feel like you’re doing something useful, and I’ll certainly be back to do some more.”

Neela and her dedicated team of volunteers have become local heroes, with more and more people wanting to lend a hand.

Volunteers arrive at 9am to help Neela prepare the meat and vegetables. But the day starts earlier for Neela.

“I start cooking at 4am on Tuesdays and Fridays. On other days, I start cooking around 8am.”

Neela has no intention of stopping anytime soon, despite a recent health scare. She’s even on the lookout for a larger kitchen so she can feed even more people.

“If someone has a bigger commercial kitchen available, I’d like to use that one to keep on cooking.”

To become a volunteer or donate ingredients to the cause, visit Neela’s kitchen at 2/413A Gloucester Street, Taradale.

Public Interest Journalism Fund.