Jagjiwan Singh and his son Jazz Singh have been giving away food to families in need from their local dairy, the Creagh St Store in Te Awa, Napier.

The Singh family have never forgotten the acts of kindness shown to them when they moved to Hawke's Bay 11 years ago and now they want to return the favour.

Jagjiwan Singh, known as Bossman, runs the Creagh St store in Te Awa, Napier, and his son Jazz helps with the running of the business.

Jazz, 20, said they were one of the first Sikh families to move to the region and were made welcome by the Napier community.

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Such acts of kindness were not forgotten and as the family watched people struggle during lockdown and they made a decision to give essential products to those who needed it most.

On Monday, the store began to give out free flour, bread and milk (one of each item per person) to the elderly or vulnerable families.

RNZ Many business owners say they have plans in place to safely operate once lockdown lifts.

"Dad, myself and my brother just noticed people walking past the shop and we could see they were struggling. We live in Te Awa and it's mostly filled with elderly. We're also near the poorer part of Napier, so we thought this would help," Jazz said.

"There's some elderly who can't drive and walking to the shop can be a struggle, so we drop the products off to those who are really in need."

It was mainly members of the elderly community who came to the store on Monday to accept the products, along with a few families who live in the neighbourhood.

"We just used those two hours on Monday to help any family in need. Bread and milk are hard to get, but flour is the hardest of all. We also gave lollipops out to the kids."

Jazz wasn't sure how much the business had given away, but estimated hundreds of dollars worth so far.

"We gave out about 90 bags of flour [worth about $5 each] and about 70-80 bottles of milk and 100 loaves of bread on Monday. But we've been giving out items to those who really need it on and off throughout the week."

Jazz said he wasn't overly concerned about people taking advantage of the free service as he said they knew most of their customers well.

"We can sometimes tell those people by the way they approach, but we have such a good community here and also some people who we thought would need it have refused to get the products for free and still offer to pay."

Jazz said they would continue to help the elderly and vulnerable for as long as they were able during the covid-19 pandemic and recommended residents kept an eye on their Facebook page for updates.