Budget 2026 allocated an annual $8 million in baseline funding to pay for food distribution which includes collecting surplus and donated food, and delivering it to places like food banks.

Food banks have also been allocated $7m in 2026/27, but no more after that.

Salvation Army food security manager Sonya Cameron told Andrew Dickens that she is concerned about the lack of ability to provide extra much-needed support for people.

"For example, obviously when people come to see us they might have problems with debt, they might have problems with income support, they might have problems with their housing. The problem we might have now is that we're simply unable to provide those, those sort of wrap-around services for whanau," she said. 

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