Something as simple as a peanut butter sandwich and an apple can go a long way in a lunchbox, but an Auckland charity providing staples for families to make school lunches has run out of money.
Only one school on the North Shore qualifies for the government's free lunch programme, but pockets of need mean some kids are going without and it is affecting their attendance.
Each week volunteers at the Good Works Trust fill big brown paper bags with bread, a spread, a protein, crackers, fruit and some extras for kids' lunchboxes.
Food security manager Sophie Gray said ensuring kids had lunch had improved their well-being and attendance.
"It's an intervention. We've got schools telling us that they're seeing school attendance going from 40 percent to 80 percent for tamariki who previously didn't have lunch," she said.
"The fact that the lunch looks like everybody else's is was also mentioned in the feedback. You know the kids don't feel any shame or self consciousness because they're just sitting there eating a sandwich like everyone else."
The lunch packs are given to schools to deliver to families in need and cover a week's worth of lunches for a family's children.
But the service is in a jam - it costs $800 a week to fill the lunch packs, and more money is needed.
"We're completely out of funding for this. We we ran out of funding several weeks into last term. We've been self funding it from reserves that we had clawed back from other areas and we kept doing it because it is so important. You know, hungry kids aren't just hungry, they're hangry."
Sophie Gray Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Gray said they were urgently appealing for sponsors and donors to continue providing the packs.
"We're currently doing 58 a week. The schools would love it if we could do 100 a week, but it's our most expensive project."
Donations received this morning are almost enough to keep its school lunch packs going another week.
Some people donating through the trust's Givealittle page said they did so in response to RNZ's story.
"Listening to RNZ this morning school lunches are vital, no child should go hungry," one donor said.
"I saw your article about school lunches on RNZ - this donation is to help it keep going," another said.
There are slightly more than 200 pupils at Birkdale Primary School and principal Natasha Teinakore said the lunch packs helped families in a way that preserved their dignity.
"When children come to school, they already have their lunch with them like everybody else and I think it just reduces a little bit of stigma around what people have or don't have," she said.
"When we've had whanau members worried about providing lunches..we've been able to say hey we've got this service and everyone's been really appreciative. It means that their children are coming to school more because they're not worried about sending a child to school who might be a bit embarrassed about what they've got."
Teinakore said the North Shore faced the same kind of issues as other parts of Auckland.
"The perception of the North Shore is that everybody is self-sustaining that they have everything that they need, they don't want for anything, but there are definitely pockets that struggle just like all over Auckland."
She said staff at the school have previously paid out of their own pockets to provide bread and apples for kids who turn up without a lunchbox.
"Schools are often on the receiving end of all the consequences that happen in society for whatever reason and if you can reduce a barrier as simple as providing a jam sandwich I think it's a no brainer really."
Good Works Trust food bank Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Teinakore said teachers noticed when kids were hungry - they were often despondent and unable to concentrate.
"It makes me sad that a child is not getting what they need for something as basic as food. In a country as rich as New Zealand there's just no need for it."
The Birkdale Beachhaven Community Project receives all the lunch packs and allocates them to schools.
Co-ordinator Janay Hutchins-Tawhai said she was concerned the service may not continue when the need was great.
"We could definitely use much more, even up to about 80 there's so many whanau that are definitely in need and I am constantly getting calls and emails from schools to refer more and more whanau.
"I'm very concerned it helps these whanau a lot and it's a weight off their shoulders."
She said families were struggling with household expenses - the latest data from Stats NZ shows the cost of living for the average New Zealand household increased 3.8 percent in the 12 months to the September 2024 quarter, higher than inflation.
Gray said the lunch packs will go on ice within days if more funding is not found - anyone keen to help can contact her through the Good Works Trust.
"We know it works, we know it makes a difference, I don't think anybody disbelieves that school lunches for kids who don't have lunch improve their outcomes, which is why the government does fund them. But there are just so many families falling through the cracks."
