Blame equipment for late meals, say workers and NUPW

by Sheria Braithwaite

Faulty equipment, poor working conditions and a shortage of vehicles at the School Meals Department (SMD) are the main factors contributing to thousands of students getting their lunches up to two hours late.

That was the assertion of a group of 80 SMD workers who are being backed by the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW).

After Barbados TODAY published an article on Thursday which stated that the Barbados Union of Teachers and the Association of Public Primary School Principals were demanding answers about why lunch delivery was habitually behind schedule since the start of the term, the workers reached out to this newspaper to shed light on the situation.

The group’s spokesperson, who has been working in the government department for well over a decade, said her colleagues were going beyond the call of duty to ensure the nation’s children were fed but the situation at the SMD was not ideal.

The worker, who did not want to be identified, explained that there were two shift systems – 6 a.m. and 10 a.m – with the former being responsible for delivering lunch and the latter tasked with preparing for the following day.

The worker said that for the past 15 years, staff have been crying out for better equipment and though efforts were made to repair and/or upgrade the facilities, it was not enough.

As a result, she said, workers clocked in as early as 4:30 a.m. most days to start cooking lunch in the event that the equipment “slowed down” or decided to “not work”.

“Nobody understands what we go through. We come in early because we have a commitment to the nation’s children but management has told us that if we come in earlier than our shift we are responsible for ourselves,” she said.

“There are about eight or so five-to seven-foot commercial kitchen steam kettles and some days four may not be working and though you have to wait for them to cool, which can take hours, we wash them out and reuse them so the children can get their meals. And this is not safe, because these things produce massive amounts of heat.

“We also have to endure uncomfortable work conditions. A lot of the kitchens do not have working extraction fans and the heat is killing staff. Imagine sweating like a dog in an environment that was not built for cooking. We were told that some of the buildings were too old for new fans to be installed,” the spokesperson said.

She said every day was not the same and on the days when the equipment posed no challenges, lunch, which is not authorised to leave the four catchment areas before 9 a.m., is delivered on time once the first set of meals leave at that time.

The cook said the latest time lunch left the kitchen was 1:45 p.m.

“We can’t say that the managers don’t try, but every time we ask for new stuff we don’t get it. We don’t get enough money from central government and every year they cut it. They do repairs or replacements in some instances but I don’t know if it is a case where the machines are so overworked that they start to malfunction.

“For example, every September when we start back work the machines don’t give us a problem – you would tend to get that happening later down in the term – cause they were resting for weeks. But I don’t know if the Summer Nutrition programme [which ran from July 25 to September 2] had anything to do with it since the equipment was working more than usual,” she added.

The SMD worker also complained that there was a shortage of kitchen staff in some instances, with workers being retasked to serve lunch at schools. She added that the department needed more vans to deliver the lunches.

As it relates to the menu, the spokesperson for the SMD workers said the department was getting fewer and fewer supplies of ingredients to give the meals flavour and some of the fruits and vegetables sourced were not always the best quality.

There are four kitchens under the SMD. The facility in Lancaster, St James supplies lunches to schools in the north and western parts of the island and the one in Harbour Road, St Michael is responsible for the schools in the central zone.

The kitchen in Country Road, St Michael also services schools in the central area as well as a small portion of the east, while the kitchen at St Christopher, Christ Church supplies schools along the South Coast and the majority of the eastern schools.

Deputy general secretary of the NUPW Wayne Walrond said that he was aware of the challenges the workers have been experiencing for many years, noting that the employees sometimes even pulled their pockets to make sure schoolchildren were fed.

“This is years that the equipment has been breaking down and we know that workers even bring things from home and buy things to get the work done. That is the level of commitment [they have]. They come out in the wee hours of the morning in an effort to make sure meals are done on time,” he said.

Walrond said he was concerned that staff were exposing themselves to unnecessary heat by reusing uncooled steam kettles to cook more food when other kettles broke down, adding that some workers developed infections over time because of the intense heat.

The senior NUPW official said some of the kitchens were old and not built for their current use.

“People will come down on School Meals [Department] but they need the resources to do the job and the union thinks the workers make sacrifices to ensure the meals are prepared in time.

“I think there needs to be consultation with all the relevant authorities to see how we can best respond to the resources that are needed immediately. So the NUPW stands by the workers who are committed and show dedication,” he declared.

Walrond said he also wanted to know what was the hold up regarding the construction of a new school meals centre at Farm Gardens, St Philip.

Efforts to reach Acting Manager of the School Meals Department Dawn Browne were unsuccessful.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb