An expert witness has calculated that Gloriavale spends just over $20 a week on food for each person.
The community's finances were unravelled at an Employment Court hearing in Christchurch on Friday.
Millions of dollars of its income each year comes from the Government.
Gloriavale is a home for all, a place of work for some, and a school for others.
"In terms of members at Gloriavale, the 600 members, 87 families, 388 children under 18 years," expert witness Gordon Hansen said.
Chartered accountant Gordon Hansen gave evidence as an expert witness for the plaintiffs.
"The source documents that my evidence relies on are audited financial consolidated statements publicly available," he said.
Gloriavale owns more than 10 companies. But Hansen told the court there are also three income streams from the government: Ministry of Health midwifery services, Ministry of Education and Working for Families tax credits, totalling millions of dollars every year.
He calculated Gloriavale spends around $75 on each member per week.
"Based on those numbers you've then done a breakdown of the various subcategories of costs, for example food you say $21.15," Gloriavale's lawyer Philip Skelton KC said.
Skelton queried this, suggesting meat and vegetables were sourced from the community's farm.
"If I asked you to assume that meat, eggs, veggies from the farm were all provided for the community then your calculation that the community only spends $21.15 on each person, it would be a significant under calculation wouldn't it?" he asked.
"It's not something I can comment on but it may well be happening," Hansen said.
Skelton also said not all 388 children in the commune should be included in the calculations as babies may be breastfeeding.
The case has adjourned until next year when the court will hear from community leaders, as well as excerpts from a book that a current member wrote and distributed before leaders publicly burned it.
