Research led by the University of Auckland has shown New Zealand grocery prices have risen so rapidly over the past six years that families on benefits can no longer feed children healthily.
Inspired to research the costs of feeding children low-cost healthy foods by the health issues affecting children in her south Auckland general practice, the study was undertaken by Dr Joanna Strom in the School of Population Health at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, who is also a public health registrar and a GP.
She discovered that for a household of two adults and two children, the price of lower-cost healthy foods increased by 35 per cent between 2018 and 2023. For a family whose children were growing over that time, additional food needs and price increases saw the cost of healthy groceries increase by more than 50 per cent, from $10,420 to $16,083.
“Nutrition is so important for children because they're developing, and what we eat affects not only our physical health but also mental health,” said Strom.
“If kids are eating overly processed, high-fat, high-sugar foods and becoming overweight, with poor dental health, they can't move their bodies well and that impacts how they interact with other kids. You want the foundations in childhood to be the best they can be.”
According to the Ministry of Health, more than one-third of New Zealand children were overweight or obese in 2023, and only 5.4 per cent of children aged 2-14 eat the recommended number of servings of vegetables each day.
These statistics are worse for Māori, Pacific, disabled and low-income children, creating inequities that persist over people’s lives, especially with chronic illnesses.
CPAG spokesperson and professor of Nutrition at AUT, Dr Elaine Rush, says, “Especially for children, combinations of a variety of healthy foods every day are fundamental to life, growth and health.
“New Zealand has high rates of child poverty and malnutrition, which will impact on the future health needs and productivity of this country. The child cannot wait: the time to invest in their future is now,” she said.
Research development and results
Strom developed a tool in Excel that could model weekly grocery prices for children aged 1-18 and an adult male and female. In the paper, the tool was used to model costs for a family with two children.
She found that food-basket prices increased by 35 per cent in the six years from 2018 to December 2023, with the largest annual increases in food prices being 11.7 per cent in 2022 and 13.6 per cent in 2023.
Strom focused on the lower cost foods within the food price index produced by Statistics New Zealand, creating healthy food baskets that would meet the nutritional needs of children, according to Ministry of Health guidelines, for a family of four with children aged seven and 14.
“Generally, there has been a year-on-year increase in these lower cost healthy foods, over the past six years, which is higher than the food price index overall, and that is concerning,” said Strom.
She said that the tool could be used by government agencies to produce publicly available estimates for feeding children of different ages or household make-ups, aimed at informing policy that helps the whole food system – including incentives to farmers and growers to sell food locally, and local solutions such as free school meals.
Advocates could use the data to lobby for policy solutions that would improve people’s access to food and address inequities.
Unsupportable decline
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in its 2023 report estimated a family with two children which was renting and receiving government allowances could have an income of $1157.
CPAG estimated the family’s food costs at $290 per week, leaving the family with a $179 shortfall after all bills were paid each week, with a food spend based on a “basic basket that would provide adequate nutrition”.
However, Dr Strom estimated feeding the children low-cost healthy food baskets would cost another $33 per week, so this household would be $212 in deficit each week.
Health Coalition Aotearoa’s (HCA) food policy expert advisory group co-chair, Dr Sally Mackay, said the study highlights the impossible challenge for whānau on low incomes to provide a healthy diet for their children.
“It is shameful that New Zealand cannot provide better access to healthy food for its own, most vulnerable citizens,” said Mackay.
“The nutritional needs of children must be prioritised in our food policies and systems over the profits of the food industry.”
Due to this, HCA is calling for the urgent development of a national food and nutrition strategy that ensures all families can have enough healthy food to meet basic nutritional guidelines; a commitment to retain the existing healthy school lunches programme for all students and for healthy school food and drink policies to be mandatory.
