I have just come back from a delightful meeting held up in the Munro/Postdam community located at the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains next to Munro College. Much of the fresh produce consumed here in Treasure Beach is grown and brought down from this community. Therefore, on a suggestion from our wonderful webmaster, I met with the Postdam Community Council on October 5 to discus the possibility of assisting farmers in this region. The Council welcomed the suggestion and immediately formed a subcommittee consisting of Kingsley Palmer as Chairman, Merle Roper as Secretary, Bobsie Williams and Etta Sawyer. This subcommittee met and came up with 36 names of farmers in the area who had been adversely affected by Ivan and/or Charlie.

So tonight it was my pleasure to represent Treasure Beach Foundation, Breds-Treasure Beach Foundation, and TB.Net in donating $60,000 JA or $1,000 US to this community to help the farmers with, as Mrs. Roper put it, a push-start. Below you see the committe making last minute changes on the hood of a car before entering the meeting.



This funding was turned into:

21 tins of 100 grams of carrot seeds. Each tin has the capacity to yield 800 lbs. of carrots. At the current market rate of $15 JA per lb. the potential earnings from one tin is $10,500 JA.

15 packages of cabbage seeds with 2000 seeds per pack. Averaging a 70% survival rate and 1.5 lb. per head the capacity for yield is 2100 lbs. At the current market rate of $10 per lb. potential earnings from one packet of cabbage seeds is $21,000

In addition, each farmer will receive a bag of fertilizer.

In summary, 36 farmers were given seeds and one bag of fertilizer thanks to your donations!

The committee took up the idea of sustainable funding and, therefore, have asked the farmers, once their crop is harvested and sold, to pay back into an emergency fund $500 JA. As the fishermen of TB, this fund will be set up as a result of your donation to this community and will be available to those who participate if/when there is another disaster. The farmers were wholeheartedly in favor of this program and a few even asked if they could donate more! Thats the spirit!!

The following are a few of the happy faces of the recipients.









And remember . . . thanks to you, more to come!!!

I always wondered if a farmers market set up on the main road (Negril-Kingston road) would make economic sense? What with all the east-west traffic, a co-op to benefit the farmers might realize some heavy traffic. Just a thought.
Mike

Hey, Rebecca, thanks so much for getting those seeds up to my friends and past neighbors in Potsdam. (And I know it was a lot more work than just delivering seeds.) I really appreciate those numbers you gave...it gives a great sense of how a little money on our part is going to really rebuild, not just be a band-aid. And of course the pictures touched my heart as well, especially the wall of the Basic School in the background with "A is for Apple".

A little background on this...I lived in the community working at Munro College and the surrounding area for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer doing computer and environmental education. I learned a lot from the people, and was treated with lots of kindness during my time there. I want to thank all of you who have donated for helping me repay some of that kindness.

For the record, the majority of the money collected by the TBNet Relief Fund (over 80%) is going to the TB area specifically. But as Rebecca said, lots of the food grown in the area makes it way down to TB from Potsdam. So helping them helps everyone.

And now for a commercial...if any one's looking for a friendly, authentic , non-touristy area of Jamaica for a day trip close to TB, I can think of no better place than Postdam (more commonly referred to as Munro area). Its on the top of the Santa Cruz mountains with amazing views, has a moderate climate, and lots of rolling pastures and smiling people. When you're ready for a refreshment, stop by Buzz & Ann's shop next to Epping Forest All Age School. Tell them Eric sent ya...and only believe abut half of what they say about me! :-)

Again, thanks to everyone for donating and helping the people of jamaica get back on their feet.

Respect Due,
Eric

Twelve more recipients in the Munro area received cabbage seeds, carrot seeds and fertilizer this evening thanks to your generosity.

We would like to thank Ann Powell for taking her time to compile a list of the names of the most in need in the area, contacting them and organizing this distribution.



None of the recipients tonight were on the list from last Thursday, so these farmers are in addition to the 36 who recieved donations last Thursday, making a total of 48 farmers.

Not all were present as this photo was taken, but most were.





Thanks to you, our farmers will be reaping their crops again soon.

And this is just the beginning . . . more to come (hopefully by the end of this week).

As promised we have more exciting news for the farmers in the Treasure Beach area. Specifically, this includes Ft. Charles, Great Bay, Billy's Bay, Sandy Bank, Frenchman's Bay, Calabash Bay, Bluntuss and Lewistown.

Aproximately 70 coupons are being handed out, as we type, to farmers in the above mentioned areas. These coupons can be redeemed at the Smartgrow Farm Store located in Pedro Plains. The total value of these coupons is $3,000 US or $180,000 JA.

What this means is recipients of these coupons will be able to redeem their coupon for a bag of fertilizer and a tin of seeds (or whatever other supplies they need) from the farm store. This effort is in keeping with our original mandate of get the farmers back farming!

Remember, many farmers received more damage during the rains of hurricane Charlie than they did during the winds of hurricane Ivan. Of course, there were some farmers who received damage from both. Therefore, we assessed for damage to both hurricanes and took that into consideration when making our assessments.

Photos to come!

Just to summarize: A total of 118 farmers from South St. Elizabeth were given a 'push start' thanks to all of you who have so generously donated to Treasure Beach Foundation, Breds-Treasure Beach Foundation, and TB.Net.

The seeds that you have planted are already producing results!

The following is a photo of a group of handsome farmers from the Bluntus district who received coupons for Smartgrow Farm Store in Pedro Plains.



I was a little nervous when they all showed up carrying machettes! Just kidding, the machette is the main tool for the farmer's trade, and most of them were coming straight from their fields. As we were taking care of business, it started to rain and all of us interpretted that as a good sign, since rain (of course, not too much) is a farmer's friend.

Thanks to all of you, once again, for your generosity making all of this possible. I wish you could be with me to see the smiles and hear the thanks and appreciation.