Buttabean Motivation (BBM) has been helping people across Auckland keep fit and fed for several years now it’s embarking on its latest initiative.
Former boxer and community advocate Dave Letele, aka the Brown Buttabean, is going up against a different opponent – unemployment.
BBM Recruitment is his latest venture and already they’ve got around 80 people on the books hoping to return to the workforce.
“I don’t want our people becoming reliant on the system, becoming reliant on handouts; we want to break these cycles for their children, their grandchildren and that comes through employment,” Letele says.
Car detailing company Gen 2 in Manukau has recruited father of two Chevez Graham through BBM. He says he’s enjoying his new job because he is able to look after his family.
“I would have been back to the streets to be honest it’s the only way I would have been able to provide for my family and it’s the way I don’t want to go back.”
And BBM has been able to help people who’ve struggled to find work in the Past, people like Graham’s co-worker Bradley Fielding.
“I went to Work and Income asking for help to try and get me back into the workforce and try and upskill myself and they pretty much told me that I need to wait longer and because of my history they really couldn’t help so I seen Dave on the internet putting out a broadcast about his new recruitment agency and I just jumped at it,” Fielding says.
Dave started BBM motivation back in 2014 to help people get fit & healthy and during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 they opened the BBM food share to help families experiencing hardship.
Now the demand for food is on the rise the team have been dealt another blow with cuts to their funding from the Ministry of Social Development. The food bank would normally help up to 500 families a week but since the funding cuts, they can only help 200 families.
“The majority of the people we are helping are hardworking people multiple jobs with families and they are just getting by,” Letele says.
“So when life happens like a broken-down car, a flat tyre, a sick child or they get injured at work whatever the case maybe they don’t have any back-up and you know that’s when services like ours are needed, people need to understand that.”
