Mum living on noodles so kids can eat properly

A Whangarei mother - struggling to feed her family because of rising food costs - is surviving on a diet of two-minute noodles and bread so she can afford to feed her children proper meals.
She has spoken out about her plight in a bid to raise awareness of how rising food costs are hurting struggling families. Figures released by Statistics New Zealand show food prices have risen 5.5 per cent nationwide in the past year, and 35 per cent in Whangarei over the past decade.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei this week responded by saying increasing food prices, coupled with record high petrol prices and last year's GST increase, were stretching family budgets beyond their limits.
Whangarei mother Vicky Flavell says she is left with little money to buy food for herself and three children once she pays her regular household bills.
"If I'm lucky, I spend $80 to $100 a week [on groceries]."
Ms Flavell said she often ate two-minute noodles or bread at meal times so that her children could eat full meals.
"My kids are saying 'come on mum, have some food' and I just say 'oh no, I'm not hungry'."
"Noodles are not a good complete meal, just a fill in. To be quite honest, I'm sick of noodles and toast."
Diagnosed with lupus in 2007, Ms Flavell worries about the effect her poor diet is having on her health.
Ms Flavell contacted the Northern Advocate following a story last week about child poverty in Northland.
The article revealed 49 per cent of Northland children live in poverty.
Previous Advocate articles reported living costs in Northland had risen 250 per cent in the past decade, and social support services were having difficulty dealing with the number of people seeking help as a result.
Ms Flavell said her situation showed how difficult things were for low-income earners.
In February, Prime Minister John Key said: "If one budgets properly, one can pay one's bills."
He said: "And that is true because the bulk of New Zealanders on a benefit do actually pay for food, their rent and other things. Now some make poor choices and don't have money left."
While she acknowledged some people abused the welfare system, Ms Flavell said poverty was not merely a consequence of bad decisions.
A beneficiary and part-time cleaner, Ms Flavell said she did not drink or smoke, and she budgeted her income carefully.
Her income had not changed much over the past three years but basic household expenses had, she said.
She grows her own vegetables and lines up early at the Whangarei Growers Market to buy cheap milk each Saturday, but she still can't make ends meet.
"It's got harder over the past year because prices have gone up.
"What I find really hard is my children's play lunches."
"A couple of bits of fruit and a few sandwiches is all they really get."
Ms Flavell said she regularly approached social support services for help but wished she didn't have to. "Sometimes it's degrading when you have to beg and plead, and you have to go through a budgeting programme every time."
"I've had to make a lot of changes in the way that we eat, and the way that we use power and the way that we use petrol.
"I'm getting nowhere, because I'm living week to week."
Ms Flavell said she had used all her food grants from Work and Income, and could not access any more food parcels from the Salvation Army because she had already received the limit.
Mrs Turei said the Government should reinstate the temporary special benefit for hardship situations, extend Working for Families support to all children, and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Ms Flavell said the Government should do something to control the prices of basic necessities, and create more jobs so that struggling families could have a better chance of providing for themselves.