A woman who often battles for enough money to feed her children has given a food parcel to her struggling neighbours as a way of paying forward the generosity and goodwill she has received from the Hawke's Bay community.
Known only to readers as "Kelly", the mum of two touched people's hearts with her story which ran in Hawke's Bay Today this week, about how some weeks she had only $8 to feed her children after paying bills.
Many people wanted to help with donations of food, money, job offers and words of kindness pouring in. After being made redundant three years ago, the local woman lived week to week, providing for her two teenagers with money from a benefit, family assistance and a part-time job.
Her daughter's father had passed away, while the child support her son's dad paid was filtered through Winz, meaning she saw only about $20 a week.
Today Kelly was able to pass on part of a food parcel she received to deserving neighbours, who were also struggling - it was her way of paying it forward.
"I still feel that there are people worse off than me. I was able to give some of it to them and they were very grateful," she said. "I'm a positive person, I know my life is going to get better, but this is not just about me I didn't do this for all of the assistance, I also wanted to give other people in my position a voice."
Feedback on social networking sites and many offers of assistance had been overwhelming, she said.
"Ninety-nine per cent of what people are saying online is positive, but there are a few people who made negative comments that I would like to reply to.
"Everybody has been amazing. I have had some bags of food delivered and I will contact the woman from New Zealand Courier, who offered me a job."