The Auckland City Mission says demand for food parcels has ramped back up to levels seen during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
City Missioner Chris Farrelly said they were handing out about 1200 food parcels a week - three times the number they would have done in a normal week before COVID-19.
It's about the same number they were handing out at the peak of the first lockdown in March.
The Auckland City Mission also sends out bulk supplies to dozens of smaller community food banks around the city and Farrelly said they too were seeing more people in need.
The latest lockdown has caused a second wave of job losses and Farrelly said people were struggling.
"There are some new faces appearing that were not appearing before, literally there are people asking now for help for the first time in their lives," he said.
People in need of help have included foreigners who have been stranded in New Zealand since the pandemic hit, students, families who have breadwinners out of work and - overwhelmingly - women.
"We are preparing for the reality that what we're doing now is going to continue for the long term, not the short term," Farrelly said.
Until COVID-19 hit, Christmas was usually the City Mission's busiest time of year.
Farrelly said continued support from the community would be crucial over the months ahead.
"We know that Christmas actually does really expose the cracks, there are so many other demands, so we're preparing for a Christmas like no other."
At the Auckland City Mission's Grafton distribution centre, teams of volunteers are sorting and packing donated goods into food parcels.
Distribution and retail manager Tracy Goddard said each parcel contains enough food for four people for four days - and they adjust the number of parcels, depending on the number of people in the household.
As well as pantry staples like rice, pasta, flour and tinned foods, each food parcel contains fresh fruit and vegetables, and either mince and sausages, or vegetarian options.
Goddard said whānau were often in need of other household items too.
"We're often short of things like toothpaste and toothbrushes [and] sanitary products are always in big demand," she said.
"Something like 80 percent, if not more, of the people that seek assistance are female - mums, aunties, grandmothers."
Goddard said at the moment they had got plenty of food and other goods in stock, in part thanks to a recent appeal for donations.
"But last lockdown we were spending anywhere between $15,000 to $20,000 a week during level four to keep the supply going and that was working with suppliers at good rates," she said.
"We're not doing that right now, but I imagine if we go through more lockdowns, we will be having to revert back to that."
RNZ
