With many people still reeling from the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke's Bay a group of Auckland volunteers are rallying together to get hundreds of home cooked meals hand delivered.
Jarnah Snee has lived in Hawke's Bay her whole life, when cyclone Gabrielle devastated the region she immediately got to work with the clean up.
Then she decided to turn to food as a way to help, volunteering at the local food drop.
"People are being given, you know, canned food and food that they can make up but they just don't have the energy to make the food or people in some areas don't have the equipment, you know pots and pans and the cooking facilities to cook meals."
Locals began cooking meals instead, filling up freezers and delivering to those in need.
With many residents faced with cleaning up their streets or destroyed homes, Snee said a home cooked meal was just what they needed.
"Just to provide a little bit of stress relief at the end of the day, after being exhausted all day long from from working and clearing out the silt and just their life in general what they're going through at the moment."
It was a long road ahead for the community, they wanted to keep the momentum going while they pick up the pieces.
"It's not going to be a week, it's not gonna be a month, it's gonna take years to clean up," Snee said.
They were casting the net far and wide to those willing to help out.
Sisters Anne Fenwick and Sally Gatting have organised for home cooked food to be sent to flood victims. Photo: RNZ / MARIKA KHABAZI
Anne Fenwick and her sister Sally Gatting in Auckland decided to answer that call.
They were filling a two tonne truck with as many frozen meals as possible and will drive it down to Hawke's Bay next Tuesday.
They have put the call out on social media, asking people to get busy in the kitchen.
Container pick up points were available in Stonefields, Meadowbank and Remuera.
"We've got people making two meals up, we've got people making 30 meals and then they deliver them back to Gatting's on Monday or over the weekend ... then they go straight into a freezer," Fenwick said.
Then they will hit the road and head to Hawke's Bay.
Fenwick said this time they were hoping to reach those in some of the most isolated areas with a private plane being offered for use.
Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Sally Gatting owns Gatting's catering which had donated containers, freezer space and meals.
So far they had received about 500 meals but they wanted to double that by Tuesday.
Kind messages were scrawled all over the containers, reassurance Auckland was thinking of them.
Snee said a home cooked meal was going down well in hard hit Hawke's Bay.
"People are shaking and crying and just beside themselves that someone would make a meal for them, you know, it just means so much to everyone."
Gatting and Fenwick were hoping to continue their deliveries for the forseeable future.
