More than 135,000 calls have been made so far this year to St Vincent de Paul (SVP) from people looking for help with rising food and energy costs.
The charity says that this is a 14% increase on last year.
However, the number of calls it has received seeking help with back-to-school costs has dropped by a fifth.
The aid given to parents of primary school children has "really lightened the load" for some, the charity's Head of Social Justice and Policy said today.
"Food and energy prices are still driving calls to the organisation", Dr Tricia Keilthy noted.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, she added that free schoolbooks for primary students, and the €100 increase in the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, have offered "breathing space for families".
The help comes at a time when people are overloaded with bills.
"At the same time, obviously, we are seeing lots of families struggle with the cost of secondary school, and then obviously piled on top of that is food and energy bills, which are still persistently high."
"With the right policies, you know we can really get things right for families, and this really just demonstrates that very, very clearly," she said.
This "gives us a lot of hope in terms of the upcoming budget", as "if we did continue on this trend and invest in free schoolbooks for secondary school students, we would hope to make a similar impact."
Dr Keilthy added that the same approach should be taken towards voluntary contributions and investing in the capitation grant.
However, with high levels of inflation, she said a lot of households are still carrying debt from last winter, so many people still have arrears on their account.
Prices are not coming down quickly enough, and SVP is urging the Government to provide the supports people need in the budget.
Dr Keilthy said that rent increases put a huge pressure on families.
"You want to keep a roof over your family's head, and that means you are sacrificing other areas of the family budget.
"Food is the most commonly requested item from SVP, and that is because it is the one area of a family budget where people have control over, and we would see a lot of food poverty in our working communities across the country", she said.
This has "a huge impact both for people's physical and mental health as well".
