The soaring cost of living is playing out in the Far North in people sleeping in cars, begging for food, and seeking support in "astronomical" numbers.
The town of Kaitaia has rated poorly in poverty statistics for years - but residents say that's taken a marked step up.
They told RNZ they are desperate for intervention to "ridiculous" fuel, food and rent prices, in tomorrow's budget.
Kaitaia local Sophie Smith-Cressy said she was recently shopping for supplies for the food bank she runs, when she saw a man buy steak from the supermarket on special and then eat it raw.
He told her he was desperate to eat and had nowhere to cook.
She said people are regularly sleeping in their cars behind her office then using the town's public showers, rather than paying for emergency housing, and she sees them scouring the footpaths for cigarettes.
Families visiting the food bank, called Fresh Start, are going a long time without proper meals, she explained.
Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
"I remember this family came in and we put eggs in the [food] box. This four year old kid was having a look at what was in the food parcel and he said 'Mum! We've got eggs! Hurry up, come on, lets go!' and you could see him salivating. He said 'I can't remember the last time I had eggs' - it was heart-breaking."
Fresh Start is the back-up for people who've already maxxed out their allowance at the town's other two mainstream foodbanks.
Sophie Smith-Cressy described the number of desperate families coming in the door this year as "astronomical."
It dished out a record 687 food parcels in January.
In the year ending March, more than 2100 people told the food bank they were in an "acute financial crisis" and seeking support "as a last resort."
It's not just people without jobs, Smith-Cressy said: more than 500 of its clients in those 12 months were people earning between $35,000 and $55,000.
If wages and benefits don't go up, she feared the situation would keep spiralling.
"You've not only got people who are mentally unwell because of the stress, the depression, 'cause they can't feed their families. You've got people with existing ailments like diabetes, asthma cirrhosis of the liver - all those things get ramped up ten-fold," she said.
Another social service trying to help is Rongopai House, which offers budgeting support.
Recent rises in the cost of living have made staff like Haley Fryer feel limited in what they can do.
"I was doing my click and collect with Pak'N'Save the other day and I noticed a six pack of yogurt that was $3.89 last week was $5.20 - how are people supposed to survive with that? If a person who's working cannot survive I can't imagine how beneficiaries are going," she said.
"A lot of clients that come through our doors are beneficiaries. They might be single mums, two parent family with children - and they're not surviving. The amount of food help that we've given over the past year has sky-rocketed. Every week we're seeing people needing help food, needing clothing, needing help with petrol to get their children to the hospital appointments out of town."
Rongopia's Roberta Kaio explained rent was eating up most of people's income.
Because MSD considers Kaitaia a cheap place to live, people seeking support find their accommodation supplements are capped well below $200.
That doesn't go far anymore, Kaio explained.
"For a standard three bedroom home you have to pay a minimum of $400 - $500 a week."
Brendon Morrisey, Principal of Kaitaia Primary School Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Kaitaia Primary School is also doing its best to keep kids fed and in class, by offering free stationary and food, and school shirts for just $10.
Principal Brendon Morrisey started those initiatives about a decade ago when he noticed most children were below the poverty line.
That's continued to get worse - now an estimated 79 percent of children in the town live in poverty.
On Morrisey's wishlist for tomorrow's budget, is more help for families to feed their children.
"One of the things I'd really love to hear in the budget announcement - I don't think I'm going to - would be removing GST off fresh fruit and vegetables to make that achievable for our whanau to buy," he said.
Morrisey said Kaitaia was not worth giving up on and he wanted the government to hear that message loud and clear.
