ANGELIKA Aulerich, a powerhouse pensioner who spends the majority of her time making and delivering meals to homeless and displaced people, needs a replacement vehicle for her old car recently deemed irreparable.

Living in Bellingen and making meal drop-offs every Friday to Pete’s Place in Coffs Harbour Community Village as well as numerous food deliveries to locals, a car is a non-negotiable tool of her trade.

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‘The Beast’, her trusty, ageing, second-hand Holden Commodore finally gave up, and has now been sent to the scrap heap.

She’s been borrowing her mother’s car in the meantime, which, owing to its small capacity, means she has to make several trips to carry as much as her roomy Commodore could in one load.

Angelika is now desperately trying to source a new vehicle to assist her so she can continue to collect food and deliver meals.

Friends have created a Go Fund Me which has raised just over $5k with a $10k goal.

At 66, Angelika lives off her pension and all her work is charitable.

While she’s being guided to become a not-for-profit, “that will take six months or so and I have work to do now,” Angelika told News Of The Area.

“I’ve got a lot of fire in me,” said the go-getter, who was awarded a Government of New South Wales Community Service Award and was runner-up for the Coffs Coast Woman of the Year Award, both in 2021.

“If we can reach the $10k maybe, just maybe, the Bellingen Lions Club can come with me on the journey to acquiring a new car.

“I really need a station wagon,” she said.

Indebted to the Bello Lions Club, Angelika received the generous donation of a new upright freezer this week.
“It will make it so much easier with storing food,” she said.

This was in a week that Angelika and her seven volunteers, her Awesome Kitchen Angels, made 317 meals, “made with love for Pete’s Place”, she said.

Speaking as the creator of the Go Fund Me page, friend Amber Kay said, “Angelika Aulerich has a beautiful, giving heart, and has been volunteering her time to help people for most of her adult life.

“Since moving to Bellingen in 2004, she has been helping locals and the wider community in any way she can,” said Amber.

“Over the past four years Angelika has been volunteering hours of her time every week, previously working out of the House of Hope kitchen and now having been generously gifted use of the Bellingen Showground kitchen, cooking for the homeless and supplying meals for the hungry to the Bellingen Pantry.”

Each week, with the assistance of her faithful crew she transforms donated and unwanted meat, vegetables, fruit and dry goods, donated by OzHarvest and individuals, into hundreds of nourishing and delicious meals.

Her Go Fund Me friends say donations of any amount, no matter how small, will make a huge difference and are gratefully received.

Any excess will be used for her charity work and to buy provisions for her weekly cooking for homeless people.

See Go Fund Me page: www.gofundme.com/f/an-automobile-for-angelika

By Andrea FERRARI