BASSETERRE St. Kitts, December 7th 2011 - In the NRP Manifesto of 2006 was a pledge to bring a lunch programme to all seven Primary schools. The Ministry was given responsibility for this. As with all new plans or policies, in the implementation it can either succeed or fail. I write now because I wish it to succeed. I write in this fashion because, over the years, I have found that letters addressed directly to Ministries often go unacknowledged and unanswered.
Indeed my letter to The Minister in January of this year was given that treatment. If I had nothing to do with the Charlestown Primary School Kitchen about which I wrote, I might have understood the silence and swallowed my annoyance at the lack of courtesy. However, having with others designed the kitchen and provided the equipment, I am anxious that it be put to good use. The kitchen is not yet completed. Matters remain to be accomplished by both the Administration and the Private Initiative (myself, Hastings Daniel and Mark Roberts). My anxiety stems from what I hear and do not hear about staffing.
The Ministry must have had plans since 2006 for provision of proper kitchens to those schools that did not have them and for effective staffing. However it was fortunate for the Ministry that the Private Initiative came along and supplied equipment for three schools. It is impossible to produce nutritious and palatable meals for about 350 children at one school if that school has no kitchen, or a kitchen with inadequate equipment. It is also remotely unlikely that a staff ignorant of or untrained in volume catering working in any form of kitchen would manage to produce what is required every day.
The Ministry cannot say that it does not know this. It is the Ministry’s policy and it is deemed to know how it intends that it should work. And in a number of articles I have discussed it.
In May 2011, I wrote ‘… The future production of this kitchen will depend upon the character, experience and competence of the person appointed as head chef and to a lesser extent upon his/her deputy or sous-chef. …It is the Ministry’s responsibility to find that perfect chef and deputy and with him (or her) choose the staff on merit only, and again co-ordinating with him/her set up some structure for the maintenance of the kitchen equipment. And as recently as September 2011, I wrote ‘… That Kitchen needs a professional chef and sous-chef of quality, whose resume shows that they have run mass catering kitchens, whose references are impeccable, and who know about healthy eating and cooking. There is no reason to suspect that the expertise of the Education Department extends to the skilful assessment of persons who claim to be chefs or cooks. I am sure that the professionals in our midst, the Hotel Association would be glad to help in this assessment. I gather that the Department has many applicants for a job in the kitchen. If the head chef position should by mischance be given to someone who has cooked in a few restaurants but has no managerial experience then the kitchen would not succeed in its purpose.’ Both articles were published in several media.
You have to get the right person and deputy at the top. Good young cooks can be trained on the job, but only if in the first place the top two are of appropriate quality and experience.
If you consider, for instance, as an analogy, an Intercontinental Airline based in the USA, you would not find that they would accept as a pilot or captain for one of their jumbo jets someone who had experience only of much smaller propeller driven planes. You would not find that they paid no attention to maintenance. On the contrary they would organise a rigid technically sophisticated servicing so that their equipment would fly safely for very many years. The principle is the same for the Charlestown Primary School Kitchen. The equipment is sturdy, and if properly looked after will last 15 or 20 years. If not it will rapidly become even more dysfunctional than the boys toilet in the block opposite the Kitchen, where water runs in only one of three basins and there is no door on one of the two lavatories. No soap. No towels. But those in charge of hygiene will be telling the boys that they should wash their hands before meals.
All the kitchen equipment, costing around US$120,000.00 – US$130,000.00 now belongs to the school/island. It is a Ministry of Education asset, for that Ministry to keep in good order and, I hope, to insure; at least against fire.
It is known on the street in Nevis that there will be jobs to be filled in that kitchen. Who else is aware of this? Have positions been advertised, at least in the media readily open to the Administration, NTV, Choice, The Leeward’s? I have seen none.
What is the goal of the Ministry for this school kitchen and indeed any others that may follow? The hope of the Private Initiative is that it form the first stage in a Nevis Food Revolution, that it provide nutritious lunches of quality for as many children as wish to avail themselves of its services, that it provide cooking lessons for children, refresher courses for cooks at other schools, cooking lessons for others during school holidays, and later, breakfasts for as many children as may wish for them. And that it maintain its equipment in pristine condition.
None of this will be possible without adequate staffing. The whole thing is too important to limit the selection to Nevis alone and worst of all, if it came to that, to those solely of the green tribe. Of course you have to pay market rates for staff at any level. This Administration is not in a strong financial position, and the cry may be ‘We can’t afford it’. But I ask ‘How can you not afford it?’ This is the one programme of this Administration that could form a major part of their legacy of health and social reform. Huge amounts of money are found for projects like the Arts Building, the Drag Race track and Community Centres, bastions of lifeless concrete all. Comparatively, the amount needed to hire adequate staff for the Charlestown Primary School is slight.
The Administration’s slogan is ‘Performance Matters’. It goes without saying, that performance is for people. But it is a truism that you cannot perform for people without a team that can perform. Anything less means that you have selected Failure for your policy.
You may find ideal candidates in the Federation, but you have certainly to be prepared to look further afield.
Syndicated Columnist
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