Michael Person
Team Lead Education Pathways, Garden and Volunteer Coordinator
Team Lead Education Pathways, Garden and Volunteer Coordinator
Michael was born in the USA in Spokane, Washington. At 13, he moved to the UK to live with his mother, and in 2014 he came to Aotearoa.
Before taking on the role of Head Chef with us, Michael had worked as a restaurant chef for over ten years. At BGI, he’s dedicated to waste prevention and sustainable consumption practices, running creative Cooking on a Budget classes in the Community Kitchen and developing BGI's community garden spaces.
Michael loves ocean swimming, capoeira, dance, music (drumming), video games and comic books. He’s been a youth sports coach and capoeira teacher, which laid the foundations for his work at BGI.
Michael would have encouraged his younger self to begin dance earlier – he believes artistic self-expression is key to building confidence in young people.
Daniel Kumar
Youth Worker
Youth Worker
Daniel was born in Auckland and lived in Tuvalu, Fiji and Australia, and now calls Wellington home.
Daniel was a part of a BGI’s kaupapa, Te Ahi o nga Rangatahi and that’s how he became connected to BGI. During this programme Daniel learnt the importance of youth representation and speaking on things that are important to you. In 2022 BGI offered Daniel a scholarship to study at Praxis and through this he has learnt to be able to better support rangatahi and aims to empower other rangatahi to speak on matters that are important to them. At BGI Daniel is programme coordinator for Te Ahi and helps out with programmes like Journeys, Sports Break and Paper Bag Lunch.
Outside of BGI Daniel loves creative expression including dancing, random painting, hanging out with mates, being in the water, music and long walks in the sun.
Slay, Serve, Survive
Daniel