A line of students snakes around the table piled high with food. They know the drill and bring bags to fill. Breads, meats and dairy products – the process is just like shopping except no payment is required.

Every week a local charity sets up shop on campus and every week the students come. This is the reality for many tertiary students who are struggling to meet the rising cost of living.

Struggling tertiary students are lining up for food parcels each week as the cost-of-living crisis eats into their budgets.

Food charity Good Neighbour has given away $136,000 worth of food in the past financial year to students at the University of Waikato and Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in Tauranga.

Students associations say the trend is occurring at tertiary institutes across the country as it gets harder for ākonga/students to cope with “skyrocketing” food prices. .

The situation is compounded by rental costs in Tauranga, which exceed the national average and are forcing some locals to live in boats and vans.

Good Neighbour general manager Renée Hanna says a growing number of students have been using the food service since the charity started in 2020, particularly in the past year.

“It seems to have gone from [an] additional bonus to ‘we now rely on this, we need this food’.”

Good Neighbour general manager Renée Hanna says there's more need than ever for the food it repurposes for students. Photo / Alex Cairns.

Renée says students are unlikely to ask for help and are often suffering in silence, with those unable to access the student allowance “suffering the most”.

For students under 24, eligibility for a student allowance is calculated on parental income.

Families who earned above the eligibility threshold are often “struggling to put food on their own tables, let alone support their tertiary students”.

Renée says these are the students “falling through the loophole”.

‘You get so financially stressed that everything’s just hard’

Student Jess, 20, who spoke on condition her surname was not published, is ineligible for a student allowance and relied heavily on her student loan.

She works casual shifts at an after-school care facility, without which she could not afford to cover her basic living costs.

“You get so financially stressed that everything’s just hard.”

She's reluctant to ask her parents for help and feels guilty asking for money.

“We complain about a lot ... the cost of life and studying, [so] it’s actually nice to be seen and heard,” she sayd.

‘It is getting harder’

Waikato Student Union president George Liu says students have always done it tough “but it is getting harder”.

More students are experiencing financial hardship due to the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

The union offers services such as the Kai Cupboard, where students can pick food up for free, and staff provide regular barbecues.

“In 2023 alone, WSU delivered 1200 Good Neighbour food parcels to students in Tauranga.”

Waikato Student Union president George Liu says students' lives have been becoming progressively harder.

Increased rents in the Bay are “effectively driving students out of certain rental markets”.

Third-year student Faith Healey, 20, says finding accommodation in Tauranga is hard because, in her view, some landlords don't think students are reliable enough to pay rent on time every week.

During the summer when her student loan was paused, Faith was able to secure only 16 hours per week of work.

Without her partner’s financial support, she says she would only have $5 left weekly after covering her costs.

A Flourish chart

“You can’t even go on the benefit as you’re still a registered student,” she says.

Uni is ‘such a distant reality for some’

University of Waikato student Rhea, 20, who also doesn't want her surname published due to privacy reasons, says it's become harder over the past three years to survive and notes that parking is an issue. Taking public transport is not always an option due to her schedule.

Rhea says she doesn't know how people get through years of study without family support.

Finding and affording parking are concerns for tertiary students in Tauranga's CBD. Photo / Bevan Conley.

“It’s such a distant reality for some to even go to university, which is really sad because everyone should have the same opportunity ... to have this education, and living at home is not always an option.”

Once rent and necessary expenses are taken care of, many are left with little for groceries. Rhea says “a whole bunch of us” will often benefit from food handouts by Good Neighbour with the student union.

“Yesterday, I got a bag with toilet paper, milk, oats, muesli bars, baked beans,” she says. “If we go into uni and we’ve no lunch, we could probably go ask for some noodles or something like that.”

‘Physical, mental and general wellbeing’ affected

Students around the country are facing similar challenges.

A Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association spokesperson says “students are working more and are finding it harder to make ends meet”.

Otago University Students’ Association president Keegan Wells says: “The skyrocketing price of healthy food is nearly impossible to maintain on a student’s budget, especially during winter”, noting this negatively impacts students’ “physical, mental and general wellbeing”.

Keegan says the association has noticed a significant increase “in food parcel requests over the last few years, particularly as local rent continues to increase coupled with rising food costs”.

It also provides food vouchers sponsored by a private donor.

University of Canterbury Students’ Association president Luc MacKay says the Studylink income is not enough to live on with rent of $180 to $200 per week consuming half their income, meaning part-time work is necessary.

Students experiencing poverty

Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology faculty dean Bart Vosse says some students experience poverty.

Engagement facilitators support students with budgeting, student loans and fees, and hardship assistance.

A University of Waikato spokesperson says students leaving home for study are particularly affected by the cost of living, and the university offers residential scholarships and self-catered studio rooms which accommodate 91 students.

Director of student services Brett McEwan says 45 per cent of students living in its Tauranga accommodation have a university-funded scholarship.

To offer a cost-effective solution for students living outside the main centres, a joint transport initiative between the University of Waikato, Toi Ohomai and Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council was created.

A regional bus service offering free or reduced fares to tertiary students aims to "alleviate fuel and parking concerns", according to Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Stuart Nightingale. Photo / NZME.

The Regional Tertiary Commuter Baybus offers services from Whakatāne, Katikati and Rotorua to Tauranga, and Murupara and Tauranga to Rotorua.

All, except for the Katikati to Tauranga route, are free for those with a valid student ID from a NZQA-registered institution.

Council transport operations manager Stuart Nightingale says fares are kept affordable with significant concessions for tertiary students and aims at alleviating parking and fuel concerns.

Government not in a position to ‘splash the cash’

Asked during a visit to Tauranga if students need more government support, Associate Minister of Education David Seymour says he recognises how hard it is for students and recalls still having student debt when he was elected to Parliament.

He cites the rising cost of rents as the primary reason students were finding it tougher now, but aside from the annual standard adjustments where student allowances were increased by five per cent on April 1, the Government is not in a position to “[splash] the cash” at any particular problem.

Seymour says he doens't know how students manage rental costs and that it’s “very, tough”, however, “the Government is up against it trying to balance the budget, so there’s no area where you’re going to see more spending”.

-Bay of Plenty Times.