After the two previous lockdowns, South Auckland leaders say not having a community outbreak located in the region is a small relief.
Auckland city councillor Alf Filipaina, BBM Motivation's David Letele and Māngere College's Tom Webb. Photo: Supplied
South Auckland weight-loss guru David Letele and his community wellbeing organisation, BBM Motivation, have already given out almost 2500 meals over the last 24 hours and he was bracing his team for their services to be inundated over the coming weeks.
"I think it's just going to get worse and worse," the former professional boxer - also known as the Brown Buttabean - said.
"Particularly for people who are already struggling, as they have just been keeping their heads above water, so this will really affect them"
Letele's Buttabean HQ in Manukau, which is home to a gym, food bank and community kitchen, flew into action on Wednesday morning giving out lunches that were originally intended for schools.
Letele said the feeling from those needing help was a mixture of "uncertainty and fear", but given "most are in that lower socioeconomic bracket, living day to day, they are just happy that we're providing this".
His main message to those struggling was not to go it alone.
"Don't be shy to reach out for help, and ask groups like ours to help you navigate stuff like getting your full entitlements from WINZ," he said. "It's during these tough times that we stand up, and there is support out there - you just need to know where to look."
Letele has already had regular contact with the council's Auckland Emergency Management team and Ministry of Social Development staff, which he said was a big improvement on previous lockdowns.
"I can see that they've learnt from the first lockdown that the response needs to go through groups already on the ground, doing the work and connected, and that there's no need to reinvent anything."
David Letele, centre, and his team at the Buttabean HQ in Manukau. Photo: LDR / Justin Latif
Over at Māngere College, the mood was cautiously optimistic following the level four announcement. Principal Tom Webb said his students will be better prepared for navigating this lockdown.
"It doesn't feel as close to home, but given it is the Delta variant, we know anything can happen with that."
The students and staff were no strangers to lockdowns, with two previous Auckland lockdowns coming as a result of cases within the South Auckland community.
At the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020, almost 80 percent of students at Māngere College did not have a laptop, but thanks to efforts by the school and the Ministry of Education the majority of pupils have access to a device and an internet connection.
"When I met with teachers [on Wednesday] morning, they seemed pretty positive as we've got the system set up already from previous lockdowns. We've allowed a lot of our senior students to take home laptops all year, just in case something like this happened
"And pretty much most families now have access to the internet as we've been working with Skinny Jump to provide free modems to families."
Pupils have begun learning via Google Classroom, but Webb said they had also made allowances for students who could not work off a laptop.
"The challenge for us is that at level four we can't distribute work packs as we've done previously. We know that Google Classroom is difficult for some of our students to engage with so we're also trying to post up work that can be done without a computer."
Manukau ward Auckland councillor Alf Filipaina hoped the lockdown reinforces the importance of getting vaccinated, and he was in discussions with the Counties Manukau DHB about setting up pop-up testing and vaccination sites to enable that to happen.
"It's just a case of getting as many whānau, aiga and families tested and vaccinated as soon as possible."
Filipaina also urged families to make sure they were looking after themselves and each other to prevent another surge in family violence incidents, as happened during the first alert level 4 lockdown.
"It's going to be a traumatic time and now that our kids will be at home, and we know from the previous lockdowns how stressful those times were, so that's why you need to take a break.
"It's really key that people look after themselves and be kind, especially to ensure they're not affecting our elderly and our most vulnerable."
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This is an official Covid-19 ALERT.
All of New Zealand is now at Covid-19 alert level 4.
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