Cork Penny Dinners says some parents are spending the summer months scraping money together to fund back to school costs.
The charity says its seeing an increase in families needing help as children are on their school holidays.
Parents turning to the charity for hot meals for their children say most of their wages is being spent on rent and bills which leaves little left for food and clothes.
Speaking to RedFM News, Caitriona Twomey of Cork Penny Dinners says the cost of the new school year is crippling for some families:
"When they start school, there's all the uniforms, there's the books, there's the sacks, there's the shoes, there's the warm jackets, there's even a pair of gloves, a hat, all the extras that you have to buy. So if your income doesn't stretch to all of that, obviously you're going to hit a crisis, because people can't get their budget to match it."
