It's no secret that Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for whānau and organisations across the motu, and it's no different for Te Tāpui Atawhai, or the Auckland City Mission.
The Mission, along with partners such as Vision West, Papakura Marae, and Manurewa Marae has been busy providing whānau with kai and presents as part of their 6 days of Christmas initiative which started last week Wednesday.
“Every one of those places including Eden Park will see up to 300 families receive kai and present for their kids," said City Mission CEO Helen Robinson.
With the rise in the cost of living and inflation - Robinson acknowledges that over the past year there has been an increase of whānau needing their services that typically wouldn't.
She says there is a close connection between food scarcity and the housing crisis.
“People not really being able to make ends meet and then that really quickly starts to impact housing because there’s only so much rent you can't pay before things get really complicated.
“So we are a supporter of continuing to raise the benefit levels - It's simply not enough for people to live on.”