Some of the members of the Mango Valley women's group. Back row from left: Yvonne Moodie and Cinderella Anderson (in front) Joan McGregor, Donna Sicard and Julia Brown. -Nashauna Drummond/Staff Reporter

Nashauna Drummond, Acting Lifestyle Coordinator

Cinderella Anderson and the women's group in Mango Valley, St. Mary, have much to be proud of. These women, some farmers, others one time craft vendors, have shown what being industrious, determined and creative can achieve.

Mango Valley Pride

They are the producers of the Mango Valley Pride line of products. This includes mango chutney, pickle, guava cheese, guava jelly, sorrel jam, jerk seasoning, orange marmalade, otaheiti balls, grounded kola nuts (busy), orange, lime spice and breadfruit, plantain and banana flour.

"Our products are of a very high quality and people are always encouraging us: "People say it bad, man. Even when I'm at church on Sunday, I'm getting call for orders," said Anderson.

The women supply many of the hotels, health-food stores and Rastafarian restaurants in Ocho Rios.

The ingredients used in their products are all natural and grown by members of the group. The processing is also done by the members of the group without the use of any heavy machinery. They make their flour by hand, using a mortar and pestel. Anderson says this is her favourite part of the process.

She beams with pride as she leans forward in her chair placed neatly in the centre of her tiny office at the community centre. An entire wall of the room is covered with a bookshelf that rises from the floor to the ceiling. The shelves are crammed with books like Understanding Art, dozens of copies of Mathematics Applications and Connection, Glenco literature, American history, economic principles and, at the top of a very short pile on the table in front of her, a large red King James version of the Bible.

MULTI-TASKING

Anderson is the coordinator of the HEART/NTA programme run out of the community centre. They teach housekeeping, food preparation and Spanish, which aim to make their graduates ready for the hospitality industry in their immediate surroundings. Anderson also teaches entrepreneurial skills, is a justice of the peace and pastor of the Mango Valley Shiloh Apostolic Church. She has also been certified as a guest television presenter for Grace Kitchens. She once worked in the hotel industry but was always a farmer, planting peanut, scotch bonnet and sweet peppers, ginger and pineapple.

One day, while working in her field, she saw a goat and cow in the community centre and thought that was clearly not the purpose of the centre. "I fasted and prayed and wrote seven letters to seven companies and they all responded, especially HEART and United Way."

Funding

She explained that through funding from various companies, they were able to install the doors and later added electricity. Now it's used as a HEART training centre and also the base for the women's group operations.

There are 15 women who work from the centre though five of them concentrate on embroidery and crocheting. Their products have been tested and approved by the Bureau of Standards.

These women are also members of the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers. They have improved their livelihood tremendously and in five years, Anderson hopes to make the project bigger and better by employing more women from the community and on a consistent basis, with products packed and stored, ready for export.

(Keep reading future issues of our Food section for products and recipes).