Whangarei advocates say they haven't seen any change in the number of children living in poverty despite the Child Poverty Monitor 2017 reporting a drop in the past year.
The report showed there were now 15,000 fewer children living with severe material hardship.
Whangarei Child Poverty Action group spokeswoman and health promotion manager at Manaia Health, Ngaire Rae, said the reduction was great, but "let's not stop now".
"All children should have all the things they need to have the basics in life fulfilled and until that's happened, we shouldn't be relaxing at all.
"Isn't that the New Zealand that we'd want? That all children live in warm, dry homes, all children have the clothing they need, the food that is nourishing, people that love them, that they have a firm identity.
"That's what we should be envisioning, not a small reduction."
Ms Rae said there were many conversations to be had around data and figures, but the feedback she is getting from people involved with the action group is that they're not seeing any shift in need.
"If you talk to people like the Whangarei Emergency Housing group and Women's Refuge they will tell you that they're still seeing large numbers of people experiencing poverty."
Ms Rae said she believed the small drop in the number of children in poverty may be down to the huge number of charities and community groups putting time and effort into solving the problem.
A new initative developed by Habitat for Humanity Northland and Mana Ora Healthy Homes is the Beds for Christmas project.
"One of the thngs that we identity often is that children don't have their own bed and the last three months we've had on average 30 families a month where the kids don't have their own bed," Ms Rae said.
"We know there will be people that have spare beds that will be sitting there and that actually they'll want them to go to people that need them."
"So we thought if we can do that whole redistribution thing then people get to feel good because they've doing something nice for Christmas for someone else."
Ms Rae said it is important from a health perspective that kids have their own bed, as it lowers the risk of transmission of infectious diseases.