Household budgets so stretched it’s no longer a cost of living crisis but ‘the cost to survive’

Source: Radio New Zealand

Food charities warn the pressure on household budgets is now so dire it is no long a cost of living crisis – but the cost to survive.

They are again asking government to provide ongoing funding for food rescue and distribution, in next week’s Budget.

The Food Network, Salvation Army and KiwiHarvest are among organisations that received one-off grants till mid-2026.

KiwiHarvest chief executive Angela Calver said the cost of living no longer described the pressure on many families.

“People are getting to the point where it is around the cost to survive in New Zealand rather than the cost of living. Food is becoming a discretionary item with people’s budgets,” she said.

“Fuel has gone up $40 to $50 a week, the cost to survive in this country is getting out of hand just for the basics.”

Calver wants to see ongoing funding, instead of one-off grants, for food rescue and distribution in next week’s Budget.

The Ministry for the Environment estimates just over one billion kilograms of food is wasted each year from production to plate – KiwiHarvest estimates of that, 240 million kilograms of edible food could be rescued.

“It’s a lot more and when we have 20 percent of our children reporting that they live in food insecure homes, we could more than fix one issue with the other,” Calver said.

“I find it so frustrating that we have the solution to the problem and we just can’t get the backing to do it. We doubled our volumes in the last three years but that has been a constant get enough funding to pay the bills, grow.

“It’s relentless but I’m going to do it because this is my way of showing my love for my country and I do.”

KiwiHarvest is celebrating a record of four million kilograms of food rescued in a year, double the volume of food it rescued three years ago.

Since starting in 2012, it has redistributed 20-million kilograms of food.

“It’s every kind of food that you can find in the supermarket. We collect basically from the supermarkets back in the supply chain, about 45 percent of what we do is fresh fruit and vegetables.”

Chef Peter Gordon is a KiwiHarvest ambassador.

He has made mince pies for lunch for community and charity leaders who help turn the rescued food into parcels or meals for those who need it.

Gordon wants to see ongoing government funding for food rescue and foodbanks.

“There’s a lot of surplus food, there’s a lot of people who need it. The work that these charities do KiwiHarvest especially, to get the food to other charities it’s really simple. It costs very little, it’s very cost effective.”

Phyllis Latu runs a social service in Manurewa, Maranga Fanau, which recently received nine hams from KiwiHarvest that were cooked up and distributed to those sleeping rough.

“Man, if you work in our area … social service entities there is just such a high raise in our cost of living. It’s not even about the cost of living anymore it’s about cost of surviving for our whanau,” Latu said.

“KiwiHarvest for us is one of those ways that we’re able to take away a little bit of pressure from our whanau.”

Hilton Overberg is a youth mentor with the charity Blue Light in Papakura and East Auckland.

He distributes food parcels with rescued kai.

“I went to a home in GI [Glen Innes] and the aunty saw the food parcels, you could [see] the joy on her face receiving it. They needed a helping hand so we were carrying these food parcels, was quite heavy, yesterday was the biggest one we’ve given them.”

Sophie Gray oversees the Good Works Trust foodbank on the North Shore, and said she is getting more referrals from the Ministry of Social Development.

The Trust needs $190,000 just for operational costs and $40,000 to keep providing a make-your-own school lunch kit to nine schools.

“I’m absolutely terrified actually about what next year looks like. The amount of money that we need in order to keep our organisation going is alarming even though we are volunteer driven. I don’t know where the money is going to come from,” Gray said.

“We would like to see targeted funding for community driven solutions because every community is different.”

She said her ultimate goal was to make the foodbank redundant and solve the problem of food insecurity.

But for now, it needed funding to provide food because demand was increasing.

“It is catasrophic for anybody on a lower income level, so that might be shift workers, self employed or anybody with complex issues in their household,” Gray said.

“We’re seeing more young people, we’re seeing more working poor. People’s whose shift have been cut back or small businesses who their clients have dropped off. Those small businesses that are the backbone of New Zealand, the hairdresser, the lawn contractor, the builder the carpenter.”

The Ministry of Social Development plans to publish a report evaluating the effectiveness of government funding for food charities by the end of this month.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/21/household-budgets-so-stretched-its-no-longer-a-cost-of-living-crisis-but-the-cost-to-survive/