Helen May Leach ONZM (née Keedwell; born 3 July 1945) is a New Zealand academic specialising in food anthropology.

[8] Originally trained in archaeology, she completed a PhD in 1976 at Otago, with a thesis titled Horticulture in prehistoric New Zealand: an investigation of the function of the stone walls of Palliser Bay.

Her interests range from prehistoric horticulture and the evolution of human diet[10] to the history of cooking, the origins of recipes as well as the development of kitchens and batteries de cuisine in the twentieth century.

Her extensive collection of cookery books, especially community cookbooks, has provided a significant resource for colleagues' investigations [11] that compensated for the incompleteness of that of the National Library of New Zealand.

[13] In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to culinary anthropology.