GraceKennedy

How many companies can boast that they provide beds for their staff? Well, at Dairy Industries (Jamaica) Ltd. they’ve got beds.

Gardening beds for plants, that is. If you should visit the cheese processing plant located at 111 Washington Boulevard in Kingston, you would see that there is a whole lot of planting going on.

Thanks to a suggestion by Junior Brands Manager, Dionne Henry, for GraceKennedy to provide land for cultivation by staff who do not have backyard gardens, and a speedy response by GK Foods CEO Erwin Burton, land at DIJL is now being used for planting vegetables.

Originally, enough land for seven beds was allocated for this purpose. And persons were assigned to these beds. But the project has garnered so much excitement at the plant that others have come on board and more land has been put under cultivation.

Of the original seven, Quality Assurance Officer Andray Spence has bed number one. And to ensure that his crops are first in quality, he employs an innovative way to recycle the plastic slip sheets from the bulk cheese to ensure a reduction of weeds in and around his bed. He is growing callaloo and Irish potatoes.

Andray Spence of Dairy Industries Jamaica Ltd. placing plastic slip sheets in his vegetable plot to help to control weeds.

Line staff Kemar Purcel has bed number two where he will sow his recently-planted tomato suckers.

Bed number three already has callaloo growing there. It is being cultivated jointly by Dionne Henry and Courtney Robinson, Dairy’s Warehouse Manager, who has been named the co-ordinator for the gardening project. “I got some carrot seeds. Where I live in Portmore, I plan to sow the carrot seeds at home and then replant them here,” says Courtney. And soon Dionne will be transferring some pak choi and lettuce seedlings which she had planted at her brother’s residence.

Information Systems Manager Wayne Williams, has bed number five where he grows sweet peppers and callaloo.

In addition to the administrations of their designated caretakers, beds four, six and seven also benefit from the input of our grounds staff, and Stockperson Edu Nelson, who diligently waters them on a daily basis, even on weekends. He also adds mulch and tends to the seedlings. When Edu waters, he waters all the plots. For him it’s a learning experience. ‘Born and bred under the clock’, this is a first time experience for him.

Simon Sterling of DIJL's Maintenance department tending to his sweet pepper plants.

While not one of the original seven, Operations Manager Michael Zajac has gone ahead and added a bed to plant Irish potatoes.

There is another big bed being worked on by John Griffiths, Alton Case and Albert Palmer from the Maintenance Department. They will be planting cauliflower and sweet pepper.

Already, the dairy team has reaped callaloo from the garden which they shared amongst themselves. And this has generated a certain amount of excitement because for some of them haven’t planted anything in a long, long time.

Hope Kerr and Edu Nelson tending to sweet pepper and callaloo plants.