Food insecurity has become a widespread issue impacting every region and income bracket in New Zealand, a new report has found.
One in three households have experienced some level of food insecurity in the last year, according to the NZ Food Network’s 2025 Hunger Monitor report.
Food insecure households are those that need to compromise on the quality of their food, or reduce their food consumption because of their financial position.
Sixty-eight per cent of people who reported food insecurity said last year was the first time they struggled to afford food.
The report found 12% of households with a combined income of more than $156,000 still reported some level of food insecurity.
Households with a disability were at an 82% risk of struggling to afford food, while single parent households had a 70% risk.
Pasifika and Māori communities, along with young people aged 18-24, were also disproportionately impacted by food insecurity.
“The volatility of peoples’ lives at the moment mean that one moment, they can be doing okay. The next minute, they’re really struggling,” NZ Food Network chief executive Gavin Findlay said.
Higher cost of living and lower or unstable incomes were the main drivers of food insecurity.
The most common ways people coped with the cost of food were by looking for sales, cutting back on eating out and opting for cheaper alternatives to certain foods.
Almost half of food-insecure people did not know where to seek help.
Even if they did know where to turn to, the report found shame was the biggest barrier that stopped people from getting support.
Findlay said it was a “culturally sensitive” issue because admitting you were unable to feed yourself could be considered “shameful” in some communities.
In certain demographics, asking your peers for help was common, while in others it was “degrading” and reflected poorly on the person asking, he said.
The report found 40% of households in the Waikato region struggled with food, which was a significantly larger proportion compared with the national average.
Findlay said this finding was slightly unexpected and the report showed more needed to be done to understand food insecurity in the Waikato.
In comparison, 32% of households in the Auckland and Wellington regions experienced food insecurity.
Becca, who is keeping her last name private, lives in the Waikato and struggles with eating because she has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and experiences high levels of inflammation.
She said she reacts badly to a range of foods and experiences pain when she eats gluten and most processed foods.
In an ideal world, Becca would be eating meat, eggs and fresh produce but she said she can no longer afford these items.
A few years ago, she said she was able to eat healthy foods despite being on a sole parent support benefit to provide for herself and her three children.
She is now off the benefit because she has a partner who earns a “higher-than average” wage working in management, and only two of her children still live at home.
Despite this, Becca said food prices had become so unaffordable that she has resorted to eating white bread and instant noodles, which cause flare-ups in her body.
“I have found myself needing stronger pain relief because of the fact that my diet is not where it should be,” the Hamilton woman said.
Becca said she does not know where she can get help because most food banks ask for a reference from Work and Income but she cannot provide one because she is no longer eligible for benefits.
“How is any single-income family meant to eat healthily?”
Demand for food parcels at the Hamilton Combined Christian Foodbank has risen in the last year, with the foodbank currently sending out 52 food parcels per day.
The week before Christmas, that number had risen to 100 food parcels per day.
A significant portion of the food parcels it sent out were to first-time recipients, manager Debbie Wilson said.
Wilson said she saw a growing need for food parcels among international students, who were struggling to find part-time work and were not entitled to any Government benefits.
“If there’s no work, there’s no food,” she said.
Wilson said there was increased demand from people of migrant and refugee backgrounds, apprentices who had been laid off, and those who worked multiple jobs but still could not cover their food costs.
“It’s pretty grim out there... all sorts of struggles for all different reasons.”
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the NZ Herald who covers news in the capital.