Three women are providing free breakfast and afternoon tea for young people in the Taranaki town of Waitara.
Up to 20 people a day - mostly schoolchildren - have been taking advantage of free porridge and toast in an unused building in the town.
The women are part of a wider group that wants to build community resilience and fight what they see as the growing problem of synthetic drug use.
One of the organisers, Andrea Moore, who runs the Waitara branch of the aid organisation Corso, says she wanted to do something positive for the community.
The organisers have no funding an food and kitchen equipment have been donated by locals.
