Cyclone Gabrielle: ‘Hero’ chef Neela Neela makes last free meals before break

Neela Neela with flowers for her thank you luncheon on Sunday morning, before her break from cooking meals for those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / James Pocock

A local ‘hero’ will soon be taking a well-deserved break from feeding thousands in cyclone-affected Hawke’s Bay, but she doesn’t intend to stop helping others if she is able.

Neela Neela began cooking free meals for locals in her makeshift kitchen in Taradale, just a week after Cyclone Gabrielle, using skills she learned as a child from her mum.

While it began as a one-woman operation, it quickly grew as others came in to volunteer their help.

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

On some days they could make up to 1000 meals, and Neela estimates they have made 170,000 meals since the cyclone.

On Sunday, Neela and her army of volunteers were cooking the last batch of meals planned before she goes on holiday.

Supporters had started a fundraiser to help Neela go on a holiday back to her home country of Thailand to see her family.

Neela said her trip was originally planned for late October, but had to be postponed until March while she sorted out her nearly expired visa.

She plans to go for a month to see her family.

Volunteers helping Neela to cook and distribute free meals to the cyclone-affected community gathered for a luncheon to say thanks on Sunday morning after they made another batch of meals. Photo / Connull Lang

She said she would like to carry on cooking if she had more funding, but this most recent batch was the last she was able to make before funding ran out.

She has previously exhausted her savings to fund the meals, and has also received assistance from the Evergreen Foundation, Pak’nSave Tamatea, Silverfern Farms, Mad Butcher and other places from across New Zealand.

“I would like to say thank you to my volunteers. They have helped me to do everything from the beginning of February until now,” Neela said.

“Thank you to any company locally or anywhere around New Zealand that has helped me with funding for the food for cooking.”

She said she was inspired to help out because she had experienced the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

“A lot of people lost everything. They had no food to eat and they couldn’t do anything. Some people, they killed themselves because no one helped them,” she said.

She said she again saw victims of the Christchurch earthquakes go through mental health struggles and stayed there for six months in the aftermath.

“In the beginning, if they got food, they weren’t hungry, and then they could think about what to do next - how they [could] stand up by themselves,” she said.

“When something happens like this, we can’t sit and wait for only the Government or anyone to help. We have to try to stand up and help out ourselves first.”

She said she wants to establish a food truck in the future and run it to support herself financially.

“If in the future, if we had a large problem like this again, I could drive my food truck to cook and help people.”

Neela said she would like to keep cooking free meals if she could find more funding, but otherwise she plans to start a food truck business that could also help others if necessary. Photo / Connull Lang

Volunteer Teresa Redington said she was on ACC and in a moon boot when Cyclone Gabrielle hit and was looking for a way to help out.

“I saw what Neela was doing, and she lived just around the corner from me, so basically, it was the ideal opportunity for me to help out, and it was something for me to do with a sore foot,” Redington said.

She said she helped every day she could while she was off work, and now comes down every Saturday since she returned to work.

Volunteer Russell Haynes said it was his first time coming to cook with Neela on Sunday, and he had been previously working on silt clean-up, mainly with volunteer group River of Silt.

“It has been awesome with the local community coming together like that,” Haynes said.

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. Email him at: james.pocock@nzme.co.nz.