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Metiria Turei says reports on high levels of infectious and skin diseases among children highlight the need for school meals.
The feed the kids bill that the Greens' co-leader picked up when Hone Harawira was voted out of parliament will finally get a hearing today, and Ms Turia hopes she will have the votes to get it to select committee.
She says the children of beneficiaries and the working poor are living in old, damp homes without enough food, and their immune systems aren't working as well as they should.
"This is why I think we need feed the kids programmes in schools. As long as our economy and our systems set it up so parents are on low wages and in precarious emplyment, their kids are going to continue to be in some kind of need so we are going to have to addressit through institutions. if we are not going to address it through wages, we have to address it through the institutions our kids attend," she says.
If the bill fails to get to a select committee, a similar bill from Labour's David Shearer has been drawn from the ballot and will allow the debate to continue.
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