Nick Truebridge for RNZ
What started as a health and fitness programme has evolved into a full-scale food bank, because of the crushing impacts of Covid-19.
Buttabean Motivation's people have already been delivering between 400 and 700 food parcels a week since the start of the pandemic.
But now demand for its services is starting to pick up even more, with families forced into isolation and needing kai to get them through.
"Every day, Monday to Sunday, no break, no rest - it's relentless," BBM founder Dave Letele told Checkpoint.
"Like I said, our purpose, and our why, is to help people. But, yeah, I hope it goes back to normal soon."
For now, Letele and his team's new normal is driving Auckland's streets, carrying kai down driveways, passing it over gates and into the hands of those who can't leave home because of Covid-19.
"People that were struggling beforehand, it's just made it worse," he said.
"It's shone a light on the poverty that's already here, the struggle that people are already experiencing.
"One good thing to come out of Covid is that it's opened people's eyes."
It all starts in the engine room - BBM Food shares headquarters in Wiri - where Dave's sister, Meripa, tears open yet another box of fresh fruit.
"It's personal to me because I know the exact same feeling of not having anything, and just relying on something like this, it's just beautiful, you know?
"To be able to provide families with it, it's just a really great thing to do."
Across the floor, Kerry Brown says the struggle is real for people in this community - the financial toll of Covid-19 compounded for some by the need to isolate.
"You can't leave the house, so having something like this it takes the stress out of families," Brown said.
Each parcel is packed with fresh fruit and vegetables, non-perishables, meat, and essentials like washing powder.
Each is worth roughly $300, on top of the cost of hundreds of food parcels BBM was preparing anyway.
Costs aren't fully covered by government funding, so BBM has to rely on grants, good will, and donations.
"I was on talkback this morning and he got a shock when I told him I spent over $300,000 since August last year on food," he said.
"We came into this premises ...there's no funding for this, this is coming out of our own pocket.
"We've got our staff that are actually trainers running our health programs, because primarily we're a health and fitness group, they're here working fulltime in our food share."
Dave himself is a part time delivery driver - first stop two self-isolating families in Papatoetoe.
But this is barely a drop in the bucket.
"It's just exponential growth, you know, I don't even know what exponential means but I know it means big," Letele said.
"It's huge growth and, look, I'm genuinely concerned about it, how much how longer can we continue to do it?"
With cases starting to swell - 446 on Friday - and home isolation rules kicking in, they're expecting people are going to need them more than ever.
