New Zealand, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, is one of 14 countries comprising the region of Oceania. Originally a British colony, it gained independence in 1907 and remains a member of the British Commonwealth. It boasts a high-income economy of over five million people, with strong manufacturing, agriculture and tourism sectors. Nevertheless, the country is not without issues of hunger and food security, especially for particular segments of the society.

10 Facts about Hunger in New Zealand

1. World Vision reported that in 2023, despite an overall global decrease in food prices, New Zealand joined some of the world’s poorest countries in the cost of an average food basket, with a 56% increase over 2022. The impact of climate change, along with import costs and lack of competition, were seen as the causes of this change. At the same time, however, the average New Zealander worked fewer hours—three hours as compared to 25 days in the Central African Republic—to pay for the same basket of food items.
2. The prevalence of food insecurity in New Zealand was reported to have increased from 10% in 2014-2016 to 16% in 2020-2023. According to the New Zealand Health Survey, between 2021/22 and 2022/23, the proportion of children living in households where the food runs out sometimes or often increased from almost 50%, to 21.3%. Tamariki Māori and Pasifika were the worst affected, with 35.1% and 39.6% respectively living in such households.
3. The Ministry of Health’s 2022/23 Annual Update of the New Zealand Health Survey reported that 45% of adults ate the recommended amount of fruit and but only 11% ate the recommended amount of vegetables; respective figures for children ages 2 to14-years-old were 70% and 5%. Almost a third of adults were classified as obese, as were 13.5% of children ages 2 to14-years-old.
4. Obesity was a disproportionately greater problem among the Māori and Pasifika children, children in the most deprived neighborhoods and disabled adults and children. 
5. Over 20% of children lived in households where the food sometimes or often ran out (an almost 50% increase), with higher percentages among the indigenous children, as well as for the disabled and those in deprived neighborhoods.
6. The years 2022-2023 saw the biggest increase in children’s food insecurity in a decade. A 2022 study by the Program for International Student Achievement for the first time including measures of food poverty, saw a drop in NZ teenagers’ math, science and reading proficiency, at least in part ascribed to missing meals for financial reasons. New Zealand had the second worst ranking for missed meals in the OECD, and these students were up to four years behind students not so classified.
7. Recently, the country has seen increasing efforts to tackle hunger. New Zealand Food Network, the country’s largest not-for-profit food distribution service, reports demand for food up 42% (2023-2024), an increase of 83% since 2021. In 2023, 630,000 people were supported, a third of whom received this assistance for the first time. Seniors were especially affected. 
8. Ka Ora, Ka Ako, Health Schools Lunches Programme, which was initiated by the government in 2019 as a free school lunch program, addressed food insecurity by providing daily nutritious lunches to school students in greatest need of this support. They were helping approximately 235,000 students in about a quarter of the most disadvantaged schools through four different delivery models. By 2024, the government planned to abandon Ka Ora, Ka Ako to save money. In spring 2024, Health Coalition Aotearoa, a coalition of organizations advocating for evidence-based policies, organized a campaign that petitioned the government not to cut the free school lunches. They referenced the Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments of program success, and collected 70,000 signatures of support. 
9. The government at first agreed not to include primary schools in the cuts, but in October 2024 they decided to “downsize” lunches for all students up to age 13. The cuts affected up to over half of schools on the internal model (food cooked and delivered within the school) to over 66% for schools using external providers.
10. As of the first week in December 2024, there was expressed dissatisfaction with the new government program, especially regarding meal size. The government claimed that the new $3 per meal budget would save $30 million, while principals criticized the expectation that identical meals for children in all grades, from 1 to 8, would equally satisfy both hungry teenagers and primary school students.  It remains to be seen whether the government’s plan will survive or the more individualized local efforts will return.

– Staff Reports
Photo: Flickr – Daniel Orth