Dave Letele to food thieves: ‘Knock on the door bro, we’ll give you kai’

Police look for forensic clues to the break in. Photo / Supplied

Community champion and BBM charity boss Dave Letele has a scathing message for the dirty scoundrels who broke into his foodbank coolstore and stole thousands of dollars worth of meat and other products destined for struggling whānau: “Knock on the door, bro, we will give you the kai.”

Letele has been left counting the cost of a burglary at his south Auckland food bank last week. It is not the first time his food bank has been hit.

Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin (left) and Dave Letele of Buttabean Motivation at the Tokoroa Social Supermarket. Photo / Supplied

“We were burgled last Wednesday night. Discovered Thursday morning when we got into work,” Letele told the Herald.

“It’s just so frustrating because all people need to do is ask.

“I would have said to the people, ‘Knock on the door, bro. I’ll give you kai.’ All you have to do is ask.”

About $5000 of meat and other coolstore items were taken. Doors were broken and locks had to be replaced.

“Just getting things repaired costs money, which is taken away from other goods,” Letele said.

Times were getting tough for everyone and food donations were not as forthcoming as they once were.

“We basically have to cover a $500,000 shortfall,” he said.

“It’s a stressful business model, but if we stop, the kids miss out – and we can’t let that happen.”

“In terms of purchasing stock, we have had to purchase our own supplies for a long time as you can never rely on food donations as you don’t know what you’ll get.

“Our food parcels contain everything a family needs for a week.

“We get support from Foodstuffs North Island, NZ Food Network, Meat the Need and the Ministry of Social Development, but the demand from the public and other food banks we support is huge so we spend anywhere from $20-40k a month, including our social supermarket in Tokoroa.”

“Monetary donations have dried up as it’s very tough for everyone.”

But Letele, a former boxer, knows how to hustle and knows a lot of people.

“It requires a lot of hustle for grant funding, philanthropic-like donations but we are fortunate to have organisations like the Ted Manson Foundation, the Reddy Foundation, government support and our own money but it’s extremely stressful.”

Last year, a woman who burgled Letele’s foodbank worked off her community service at the foodbank she stole from.

Joseph Los’e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and before joining NZME worked for 12 years for Te Whānau o Waipareira.