 Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Stepping Up, I'm your host, Danielle Dubois. This week, we review one of the initiatives by the governmental St. Lucia, which brought relief to hundreds of households as part of the COVID-19 national response. From the lockdown in April, the government's response took the shape in several initiatives. It first started with the food packages, which was arranged by Nemo. The sudden shutdown meant that many were left disadvantaged, not able to access food. With the help of the business sector, government procurement, and the St. Lucia Cadet Corps, over 10,000 food packages were delivered island-wide to families who needed them the most. After this, the government sought to collaborate with the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association to deliver hot meals on Sundays. Several hotels around the island opened their kitchens to cook hot meals. From here, the engagement of farmers and the marketing board began when the produce and meats were purchased directly from local farmers. With assessment and monitoring, the government realized that the above was not sustainable and sought to create a new program, the Good Food Box Program. This program was a collaboration between the St. Lucia Marketing Board and the Government of St. Lucia, which benefited so many persons on different levels, farmers, fishers, poultry farmers, especially those who lost an outlet due to the closing of the borders and the immense shutdown of the tourism sector. The marketing board stepped in and stepped up to provide economic relief by absorbing produce that would usually supply the hotels to bring wholesome good food to households island-wide. In this first segment, we featured the St. Lucia Marketing Board learn about their national mandate and how they continue to play a vital role in the agricultural sector. Let's take a look at this interview as we chat with the general manager, Mr. Nathaniel Reynolds, and Mrs. Theresa Daisy, the operations manager of the St. Lucia Marketing Board. So we know that COVID-19, basically a lot of our sectors, especially the tourism sector shut down. That means a lot of other supporting sectors will halt it as well. Let us know how farmers were affected and what exactly did Marketing Board do to assist farmers during that time? It was the wisdom of the Prime Minister that came to the Marketing Board. He realized that the hotels were closed and that farmers would have a lot of produce on the ground at the time. And he felt within himself that the farmers shouldn't suffer and the farmers themselves shouldn't suffer. What would have happened would have had a lot of wastage on the ground. So the government collaborated with the St. Lucia Marketing Board to prepare a thousand care packages on a weekly basis to send to the less fortunate. We were able to buy from the farmers, we were able to buy every item from the farmers that they brought to us and we were able to work with our care packages and send out to the less fortunate persons in the country. Let me just indicate that we purchased from registered farmers and unregistered farmers. And talking about unregistered farmers, a lot of persons who worked in the hotel industry, people who had lost their jobs, they had a little kitchen garden, they had avocado trees planted by their homes, they had mango trees, they had the little stuff and they were able to come here and sell all those things to the Marketing Board so that they too could have been benefited from what we were doing in collaboration with the government. This message brought to you courtesy of the Bureau of Health Education of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. I'm here with Ms. Theriza Daisy and she's the operations manager of the St. Lucia Marketing Board and she's going to let us know a little bit more about the mandate, the history of the St. Lucia Marketing Board. How are you? And thank you so much for saying yes and agreeing to do this interview with her today. So I want to start off by asking how did the Marketing Board start, what is the role the Marketing Board plays in St. Lucia? The Marketing Board was established in 1967 through an act of parliament as a statutory corporation and has been ongoing for I would say 52 years in its making. The Marketing Board basically is charged with the responsibility to market farmers produce namely locally and overseas to some extent and also to work with farmers both individuals and farmer groups. For the years of its establishment the Marketing Board has been working with farmer groups namely the Ajay Farmer Group, you have Salted Bus, Burns, Chris, Belvi and in addition to that the Marketing Board also work with individual farmers. As a matter of fact based on the record we have a total of 415 farmers that includes both the individual farmers and the farmer groups. The Marketing Board actually have been purchasing from those farmers on a to say a daily basis but more so what the Marketing Board does is to go down to the field 2 days per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, visit those farmers, interact with them, buy their produce, take it back to our park house where we are hired and most of the produce are so currently at our retail outlet in castries. In the past I would say to some extent the Marketing Board sold extensively to the hotels and also exported but more recently the Marketing Board have been selling most of its produce at the retail outlet, bear in mind that COVID is set in and the hotels are closed so this outlet is basically our main source of, I would say sale where we sell our produce to generate the income to manage the Marketing Board. And do you all have a good turnover in terms of produce of the retail outlet? Yeah basically I would say the produce we sell is within the range of a little over 100,000 dollars a month fully. Why? Okay. Let's talk about COVID a little bit and let's talk about the impact of the farmers and you guys saw that there was a need for Marketing Board to step in so let's talk about that. Okay when COVID set in that was during the early March the Government of St. Lucia approached the Marketing Board where the Marketing Board entered some agreement or collaboration with the Government of St. Lucia to supply 1000 boxes, care packages for a period of three months that's from March to the end of August to the needy, the less fortunate fraud, the length and breadth of St. Lucia. And I must say that was a good initiative by the Government in the sense that the number of farmers who were faced with this dilemma as to where they would have sold the produce and because of the volume of produce that went into these care packages, I'll just give you a few examples. For instance, you had plantain, the banana, you had the dry goose fur in cassava eggs and the total in terms of the volume of produce was way in excess of almost 400,000 dollars as a volume of produce and those, even the fish, the chicken farmers benefited extensively. So lots of produce were produced and purchased within that time frame to put in those boxes throughout the period of time. Nice. Were there any other agencies that assisted the logistics and the transportation? What is it that you guys did to let the farmers know? How did you contact the farmers to let them know, hey, there's an opportunity if you have any stuff on the ground, come to Marketing Board. Okay. What the Marketing Board did from the inception, we worked along with Blue Ocean. They were the source for the fish and real food for the chicken. The Marketing Board also worked with farmers, five or six large-scale farmers for the eggs and apart from that, as a matter of fact, when we started the care packaging, we were a bit low in terms of the volume and we saw some of the produce from the outside sources. However, within a week or two, I mean the volume of produce, it was such, it was alarming to see the amount of farmers who came to our doors to sell and even talking to farmers from a one-to-one, farmers told us that was a life saver for them because they had nowhere to turn to sell those produce and it's a sad thing at this moment the care packaging came to an end. However, the Marketing Board that is management, the directors, board of directors are looking to see and to see if there will be some sort of extension of this program and apart from moving into the care packaging, we are expecting that some of the avenues for the farmers to sell their produce will come along. Nice. Did you guys have to hire anybody here in your parkhouse to help with the sorting and logistics? Yeah, well apart from the small number of farmers, sorry, the small number of staff we have on board, we employed 12 other staff members who came on board to assist us. That was a short term improvement. Oh yeah, that was a short term however, I must say, after the care packaging came to an end, what the Marketing Board, in fact management, we entered some arrangement to train those very same core staff and the staff and we went through our staff training and SOP standard operating procedures with the very core of staff and we were able to keep just a small number out of the 12. How do you foresee what are some of the new initiatives that you guys have besides the care packages? We still know that things are, we see a slow reopening of the tourism sector so probably that might ease the farmers a little bit. But what else does Marketing Board have in store? What is the next plan you guys have in mind basically? Okay, so apart from the care packaging, management as the general manager and myself, we are working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to see how we can facilitate the flow of produce through the school feeding program. We just have ongoing discussion and we're hoping that would be initiative that we can enter into so that we'll be able to supply the schools throughout the island. Apart from this initiative, we are also working closely with Exports St. Lucia to see how we can export some of this produce to the neighboring islands. More recently, we had some meetings on going with the farmers of Angers, we had an indoor meeting with the farmers right at this facility and those farmers have been looking to see how Marketing Board can assist them to enter some arrangement to sell this produce, not only to our local front but to export it at some point. So that's the wrap up. Anything you would like to say or let people know about the Marketing Board? You know that Marketing Board has come on the fire for years now. It's like the Marketing Board, the Marketing Board. So what is that? We know we have some conceptions about the Marketing Board. What is it that you like St. Lucia to know? Given that you have said that you guys are restructuring, that you have plans for the future but just you personally being an operations manager here for some time now why is it that you have to let St. Lucia know about the Marketing Board? The Marketing Board was established for a purpose and I must say that given the number of farmers we have been assisting because we know there is mercy with the large scale of operation but when you look at the role the Marketing Board plays when I must mention that the Marketing Board goes out to the field all the way down to Salty Base and Angier to buy the farmers produce and take it back here these are farmers I must say if the Marketing Board could not have provided these sort of services probably would be trying to sell this produce by the market and elsewhere but apart from the Marketing Board going out to buy the produce when we look at the volume of produce we are selling here I mean in the retail when we compare our prices in terms of our selling price I must say our prices are quite affordable you know and the Marketing Board definitely has a role to play to assist the less fortunate those farmers the medium to small scale farmers and also a person who will just walk in and sell the produce so in moving forward I hope that the government will see the need to assist the Marketing Board to continue the mandate that was given to the well-disestablished that is to market farmers produce and to assist those farmers who can even help not only themselves but the family and send us out lunch Thank you very much and you know singing out from Marketing Board COVID-19 is a new pandemic disease as declared by the World Health Organization it is transmitted directly by respiratory droplets when an affected person coughs or sneezes or indirectly through rubbing the face with contaminated hands there is still no specific treatment or vaccine against COVID-19 and as such the farming community should adhere to some special recommendations limit the number of crew members to only essential persons practice frequent hand washing and cleaning of all boat surfaces limit contact with the public keeping a safe distance between each person limit unnecessary conversation with customers and pairs during the sale of fish wash hands frequently with soap and running water or use 60 to 95% alcohol-based hand sanitizer until water and soap are available sneeze and cough in a flexed elbow or into a tissue immediately discarding the used tissue into a bin and wash hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer until soap and water is available and avoid close contact with persons having respiratory symptoms more than ever before your important role as gatekeepers of St. Lucia's nutritional health and food security should be taken seriously when you exercise these precautions you not only safeguard your health but also continue to allow all St. Lucia's access to freshly caught fish and other seafood remember it is our responsibility to ensure our nation eats fresh St. Lucia's Best I definitely learned so much about the St. Lucia Marketing Board and how they continue to support farmers we hope that moving forward they can continue to step in and step up and move with the times in the next segment we chat with Mr. Earl Hippolit a farmer by profession with a background in agriculture as an extension officer in the ministry let's take a look at the interview as we chat about the business aspect of farming and his interaction with the St. Lucia Marketing Board so to conclude our show we zone in on one of our farmers and I'm excited to talk to chat with Mr. Earl Hippolit and he was like why couldn't you guys come to my farm so Mr. Hippolit thank you for joining us today let us know a little bit more about you, your farm and how long have you been into the business Hippolit, I farm at Deglo, I've been farming for five years now previously I was an agriculturist so I just went right into farming so when you say you're an agriculturist what exactly was that I worked in extension, worked in the farm you worked in the ministry I worked in the ministry and then Winfresh SLBGA then Winfresh so what type of are you into crops and livestock I'm more into crops and what are the crops that you grew on your farm I grew primarily bananas, plantains and lately I did some short crops watermelons, pumpkins, cucumbers I tried my hand at some cucumbers ok nice, cantaloupes so let us know a little bit about your relationship with the Marketing Board what is the relationship like with the Marketing Board I've had a long standing since I started I've had a relationship with Marketing Board but it was compounded to the program that they had the fielding program for the needy after Covid, post Covid so I really supplied at a greater extent ok, were you affected when there was a shutdown of the hotels I think all farmers were affected more or less but after things opened up I think the Marketing Board program really helped so let me know a little bit more about what exactly you supplied to the Marketing Board and how that initiative basically helped you throughout that down period well I did some short-term crops immediately after so I sold cucumbers and I sold large quantities of bananas and plantains weekly so for almost six months since the program started I supplied consistently to Marketing Board those products nice now that things have eased up a little bit have you started or sourced new markets for your crops or your goods I always had alternative markets but I believe the more markets you have the more alternatives you have is the better so it will encourage you to produce more the more you can sell the more you will increase your production and your productivity ok, what is it that you would like solutions to know about your livelihood as a farmer and what is it that you would like to see happen in terms of your relationship with the Marketing Board moving forward I believe more people should get into farming especially the younger people and we know most people like to go into white collar jobs as opposed to go into farming but I believe that it's a good investment it's risky but I believe it's good especially if we could improve certain things like farm insurances or adverse conditions I would like to see Marketing Board probably construct me to produce certain crop sediments so I could produce it consistently and I know probably I could have a semi-fixed price so I can at least work out my profits or losses but I'm just joking I think it's more profit if you do it well if you are productive as a farmer there is a profit to be made from farming so I really want to encourage also for local the public to buy local support Marketing Board if they support Marketing Board they're supporting the local farmer and it's good for the economy because we employ we're helping the unemployment by employing more people the more we produce the more we can afford to employ so having that support with Marketing Board and I believe Marketing Board is well placed they can combine all the farmers produced they can consolidate and really market because it keeps us on our farm if we have to go all over trying to market the time you not spend sufficient time managing your staff and your resources on the farm so the more time you have to spend managing on point you'd be more productive you'd be able to work on quality better and be more profitable so I believe Marketing Board is well placed to work hand in hand with farmers to really improve and go forward I believe Marketing Board should expand now after this pilot project with the needy packages I believe Marketing Board should really go out there and probably do a delivery service to the public I have market small packages similar to what the needy programmer and sell it to the public who wouldn't want to ordinarily go to the market consolidate stuff prepare different packages and sell it to the public so the same question basically what is like encourage young people to do farming and your relationship with the Marketing Board and the nice little incentives that you suggested Well, I want to applaud the program to help the needy after Covid Marketing Board to continue to buy to produce women to distribute to the public so I think that was a good program to encourage women to produce more and to change their production because after Covid it was difficult for everyone in the country and also for women so I think that was a good project to help women to achieve objective view and to produce also to change their profit because we are able to employ people who can pay to work we are not able to make profit I also think that Marketing Board to continue to work with women always after this program because this program has existed for 6 months but if you work with Marketing Board for BIO, PODU, PASIMEN I hope that Marketing Board to be able to work with women so that they can earn more so that they can encourage women to continue to plant and to sell so that they can earn more to sell so that they can earn more women because they can be able to sell more women so if there is a place where they can sell all women it is a good job I am very happy with Marketing Board and I hope that I will be able to export continue to consolidate all women and also sell to the public I would like to deliver to the public a different package so that people can come to the place Thank you Thank you Thank you very much and all the best moving forward Thank you I am blessed to be here given so let us know a little bit about your journey as a fashion designer most of you are a household name because you used to dance in Silver Shadows for a very long time and then you branched off in your own thing and now in Canada you have made a name for yourself so let us know a little bit more about your work as a fashion designer in Canada and then you moved to Toronto Fashion Week Well here I will say that I am thankful and blessed for the opportunity to have the platform to be able to focus my work on the level that I am doing it right now because I was giving an opportunity I was a model for Fashion Week and after that they had a student design competition for the part I won and I mean from then I just knew that I was a boy from a small island and I had to do what needed to be done to be great because I don't settle for mediocrity so I just tried to push forward and better myself all the time I was in competition with myself really and truly just to be able to be the best at what I say if you feel like this is going to be just put your best foot forward What are some of the things you did to improve your craft to where you know where you just started? For me it's just improving my craft really because I am self-taught what I did is just start trusting and believing in myself more I believe that I can do it trust in my inner artist Calto Vassi is new to you and you too other people Calto Vassi is where I've always been I've always been an artist whether dance, whether acting anywhere you still have to tap into that space and place so I went on a journey of self-discovery and just realized how much I could do and who I could be and realized that all you want to start trusting in you everything else will work out we started, we had a little discourse about you know back then you should show me your designs in your notebook and you can work with it everywhere and you know we all know the struggles of being an artist and saying we should in terms of being able to be yourself 100% because you know how our community is small and sometimes our ideals have us from wanting to be our full self did you ever envision that you've been able to having gone over to Canada I think as a child what was the plan you left? as a child my imagination always run wild even now when I meditate I always go back to my grandmother's house and like overlooking into like the wild and you could see the sea from a distance I used to have this toy car driving on the the ballast of the balcony and I envision me driving on the big highways of a foreign land I never knew existed I know it's true and I see it on the big bridges and like everything you see in the movies I envision me doing that so the first time when I came here and I bought my first car and I had that moment I was like wow I'm having a moment that I had when I was a child myself in a foreign country owning a car and driving on like a big highway I'm realizing that your imagination makes room for what and who you want to be if you imagine it you could be it if you dream it all you have to do is go and achieve it and work hard for it the working no one could have prepared me for the work hard aspect and I think being black and being from a smaller island and doing what I do and using print instead of what people expect me to use I have to work even harder although like my aesthetic is loud and I'm not using print as an excuse to do less I'm doing as much as everything else but I still have to be more in the room I still have to speak up even more I still have to be more than anything else and I'm okay with doing that because it makes me better me and I'm learning things about myself and it gives me an appreciation for when I get to the level of success that I want to be that I can look back and say you know what I worked hard for it and the most important thing too is the point that you may not promise to be authentically yourself and true to yourself I would not be anything else and right now in the fix and space that I am is just like my art and me are one so if you are not accepting of my art then you're not accepting of me you're not accepting of me you're not accepting of my art if you don't like it that's okay don't invite me to an event and expect me to dress down I'm sorry at your wedding I'm coming so you better be okay with you and be confident with your you because I am me authentically 112% all the time Karim let us know a little bit about your latest connection your latest collection the one that you're working on and let us know how you continue to bring your St. Lucian essence into your book it's beautiful I feel like for the first time I'm working on a collection that's not that did not derive from some kind of tragedy or some pain I loved digging into those things as they fueled me and my mom passing away was one of the main reasons why I feel like I'm pushing towards my goals and my dreams to make her proud in some way but I had a moment of realizing that if I have to continue working from pain or from tragedy I don't want that for myself who wants to always go through tragic events I had a moment of rebirth and realizing I want to work from different places in space so I went back to some of the most fondest memories growing up in St. Lucia and just running in the rain when it rained and sliding in the mud on the playing field those things going by the waterfall by the river my collection this year was called Mud Mud to the English-speaking people Labou to me so it's called Labou and I just feel like Labou has such sophistication you know to some they see the messy they see the mucky to me I see opportunity to just be free within who you are and walk within your destiny like mud is more than just one of the beautiful hours grows from the muck the lotus grows out of the muckiest waters in the mud it blooms yet untouched by its circumstance and I feel like I'm living that if my story is so complex but you see me and I don't wear half of the things that I've gone through on me and that influences so much so mud I'm doing Labou it's about my growing up and solution and the things that I love and I'm doing a collection for me about me for you to see get a piece of my journey and the beautiful things that's it is I am this is the most like I'm excited mostly about this collection it's the hardest collection ever I'm happy to see how you're talking about your work because I know as an artist when you're creating something you're like it's not good you think it could be 100% better but hearing the satisfaction in your voice hearing the fact that you think that it's something really amazing and you can't wait to share with it share it with other people I think that all goes well and that really means that it's really something special it is special because I had a moment this morning of just telling myself to surrender to the process you know I have a thing about things being perfect and if something happens I tend to just close on myself and feel like the world has ended you know and I said once you lose stop trying to control a process which is already you're already on your path of what you need to be doing just surrender to it whatever happens it happens and that is what it's supposed to be what makes it authentic so no matter how that show goes I know that I have surrendered to it's process and allowed it to and like I you did this because it's you you surrendered everything you surrender parts of yourself so that you're not feeling afraid to express you know what this is what it is I'm opening up myself to people now in a different way because I'm not just fashion I'm not just one thing you know to people who know me dearly and to those who are marrying my work and I'm thankful for that it's just that I started off in choir I started off doing drama and plays and then trickle off into dance and now like doing fashion so for the first time I'm creating every aspect of me I'm composing and producing my own music I did not know I had that skill and talent like I was there freaking out because I couldn't forget how because the more you let go the more it comes to you and it becomes clearer your talents and your capabilities but Kadeem we need to wrap up when you're wrapping up let me know as we conclude what is it that you want the musicians to know about right now what message you want to send back home to all the people who love and are rooting for you let us know how we can contact you and keep in touch with you I feel like my message to Sainton Chattano is to just thank you thank you for being my place of birth thank you for giving me so much culture and so much influence that I could draw from and pull through I don't know it's unexplainable Sainton Chattano is a place on its own you have to experience it to know people are just beautiful my advice to the artists who are staying at home maybe not thinking that they're good enough is to just jump be who you want to be walk within your truth and bring your destiny consistency keeps you and pushes you on the path of where you need to be jump into anything we'll say like artists put it out there, even if you feel like it's not good enough someone who will see it will like it it will push you to better yourself and don't think that there's no place and space for you there is the worst thing you want to do is die with so much you want to be empty when that moment goes on you want to show the world the gift that God gave you you know and yeah can you let us know how you can contact you yes I could Facebook, Instagram at Cal Javasi or just Javasi yes email cal.javasi at email.com all the information is on the social media platforms in any way other than contacting me but yes I'm reachable and to the government I just want to say to the Gavi book me I want to come do a show hopefully from abroad like an independent something or some form of cultural celebration I want to bring back home what I have learned well that's definitely on the table for you to do we have to organize your proposal organize your stuffs and you know we're a government that's very open to feature people anyone doing amazing stuff so you definitely clean the right space and you know we had to endorse you and something that you said to me while you were wrapping up was when you said that there's always room at the top for the best always room at the top for the best and I pray that Cal Javasi becomes a worldwide known name and label and just thank you so much for everything and keep up the good work for you oh and the show is is airing virtually on Instagram if you follow fashion up Toronto they will be hosting the show definitely we're going to share that for you today take care of yourself darling so much love thank you for having me again alright and bye bye that's it for this week's installment of Stepping Up feel free to send me an email at SteppingUp758 at gmail.com to be featured or know someone who should be featured thank you so much for joining me I'm your host Daniel Dubois keep safe and until next time don't forget to keep Stepping Up