Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has gone in person to see desperate people asking for help at the Auckland City Mission.
The Mission was in its final day today handing out food and presents from Eden Park.
It’s a frantic setting with supermarket trolleys of food being pushed in between families, some of them are on the floor.
Because of a flurry of donations, volunteers and other help since yesterday, today is the first time in recent days people haven’t been turned away.
"We’ve worked and we’ve made a decision that today – no matter what – we will turn nobody away," City Missioner Chris Farrelly told 1 NEWS.
"The stories are generally stories of mothers and grandmothers looking after their children, so it’s a focus on children and a focus on food.
"It’s not the presents that people are coming for… it’s actually basic food, this is not fancy food – this is just stuff to live on you need this week," he said.
Mr Farrelly said there were familiar stories of accommodation costs, and debt from food trucks and loan sharks leading to a difficult time for many.
"The general cost of living increases has now squeezed food right to the very edge and it has become discretionary for many people."
Last year was the biggest ever year for the Auckland City Mission.
It handed out just over 4000 family food bundles which take up a shopping trolley.
This year that has doubled to more than 8000 with the help of extra distribution centres which have been working longer hours.
Worker Kelly Brown is at the make-shift Eden Park site packing food into bundles, ready to be given to families.
For him it’s been heart-breaking turning people away.
"They’re not getting the food that they need, they have to try to find somewhere else to go to try to get the food that the need," he told 1 NEWS.
"Something has to be done with all this poverty," he said.
The Prime Minister, who was with Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni, said in a Facebook video they were there to make sure people go the help they needed.
Ms Ardern said she’d met people today at the Auckland City Mission who’d come from Huntly and Tauranga.
By Kim Baker Wilson
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