Demand for emergency Salvation Army food parcels increased 84 per cent in the first week of the lockdown due to the Delta community outbreak.
As a result, the church and charity has joined others in calling on the Government to bring forward benefit increases set for April 2022 and implenting a freeze on rent increases.
In its Covid-19 lockdown briefing from its Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit, the distribution of food parcels climbed from 1230 to 2258 in the week ending August 28.
Around the same time, food parcel inquiries to its helpline rose from 384 to 1178.
The Salvation Army's Ronji Tanielu told Breakfast it had seen a "spike" and "surge" in those needing help, largely in Auckland.
"What we're seeing is people living on the edge, those who are really struggling to make ends meet."
He said families in this position "start tipping over" when a "crisis" or "shockwave" like this lockdown arrive.
Tanielu warned the longer Alert Level 4 lockdown remains in place for Auckland, the more hardship there will be.
"In our food bank in South Auckland we're seeing a spike already, so we're really worried about that."
"We came into this lockdown with a whole bunch of social issues.
"What lockdown does is it just magnifies it, it just makes the cracks that were already there in those whanau a lot bigger."
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