As the country eases into Alert Level 3, still fresh in the minds of New Zealanders is going without takeaways, having limited access to edible luxuries, and finding certain grocery items quickly vanishing.
Food historian, Dr Joanna Cobley, believes our dietary choices during COVID-19 evoke numerous factors of reaction, culture, attitudes, and security.
"It's partly herd mentality, what we're supposed to do, the public messaging that went with it... so you're looking at some really big things about us as individuals - it's patriotic to know how to look after yourselves."
While demand for smaller packages of flour spiked with national baking activity, she says the trend is attributable to cultural comfort.
"It's a basic ingredient - all cultures will have a form of flour, like we all have a form of bread that we make, so flour's a staple food to thicken sauces, or for quick, comforting, filling foods: carbohydrates like scones, pizza bases, bread, and Anzac biscuits..."
For the duration of Level 4 lockdown, Kiwis had been getting back to the basics: home-cooked meals, re-connection, slowing down and no fast food.
"I feel we've re-focused down to the basics, like when you go camping or tramping, the big thing of the day is getting a cup of tea and some food into you, so people have gone down to a daily routine, sharpened up their kitchen skills and probably their care-taking skills," Dr Cobley says.
As the majority of the nation is making cleaner and more mindful dietary decisions, it is something the Salvation Army is supporting with exacerbated financial hardship being felt over the country.