A burger made by someone with diabetes, for diabetes
A burger made by someone with diabetes, for diabetes
Sammy Carter (she/her)
Dirty Burger staff member Lee Congdon was diagnosed with type one diabetes two years ago, now he’s created a burger to raise money for Diabetes New Zealand.
In February, Dirty Burger Wellington raised over $1000 dollars for Diabetes NZ, a dollar of every Lee burger going towards it.
Two years ago, when Congdon was diagnosed with type one diabetes, he was taken aback.
“It was pretty overwhelming. I felt like my life was over but now that I’ve lived with it for a while and learnt to deal with it, it really doesn’t hold you back.
“Not a lot of people know but type one diabetes can occur at any time.”
With a love of spicy food, Congdon created a burger his friends could get a kick out of.
When he pitched the burger, his boss suggested they donate one dollar of every purchase to Diabetes NZ.
Congdon said, “I had no intention of making any money off of it.”
Staff from Diabetes NZ came to the Dirty Burger Cuba store to try the Lee burger and were stoked, but some couldn’t handle the spice.
Alex Henderson, owner of Dirty burger said Diabetes NZ were happy it brought awareness.
He said, “They’re not expecting 100s of 1000s of dollars to come back, but they were really happy that it brings more awareness to the issue.”
“I’m more than happy to do it, especially when it's something so close to him [Lee].”
Henderson said staff are always coming up with “crazy creations” on their lunch and dinner breaks, so he invited them to pitch special burgers and they would get a dollar royalty for every sale.
But when Congdon spoke about his diabetes at the pitch, Henderson said, “I just thought ‘well, might as well do another dollar for Diabetes NZ’ ”.
“I think it makes it feel even more special because he has that connection to it [Diabetes NZ].”
The Lee burger will be the first of many as Henderson wants to have more burger specials by staff, donating a dollar to a place of their choice.
“People have been really really into it and supported it,” Henderson said.
This March, the Dirty Burger Cuba street location is doing a six month pop up for their sister company Karaage Kid, which sells Japanese fried chicken burgers and bowls.
