![\"Blydenweb\"](\"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Blydenweb-224x300.jpg\")
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Interviewee<\/strong>: Anestasie Blyden<\/p>\n Interviewer<\/strong>: Jeffrey Boyce<\/p>\n Date<\/strong>: June 27, 2016<\/p>\n Location: <\/strong>St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands <\/p>\n Description<\/strong>: Anestasie Blyden has served as a food service worker in the Virgin Islands for over fourteen years.<\/p>\n Jeffrey Boyce<\/strong>: I\u2019m Jeffrey Boyce and it\u2019s June 27, 2016, and I\u2019m here today with Anestasie Blyden. I\u2019m on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and we\u2019re here to talk about child nutrition. Welcome and thanks for taking the time.<\/p>\n Anestasie Blyden<\/strong>: OK.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: Could we begin today by you telling me a little bit about yourself, where you were born and where you grew up?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: I was born in St. Lucia and I come here and married, and then I stay on St. Thomas.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: Did you go to school on St. Lucia?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Yes, in St. Lucia I made my school.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: And were there lunch programs there?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: They had lunch program, but what they was using was like milk, and orange, and so forth like that, not like St. Thomas, but I don\u2019t know if it change now, but they were always serving the milk in the school.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: So you said you came to St. Thomas and got married.<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Yeah, I was married.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: And how did you get involved working in child nutrition?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Oh, I want a job with government, so I apply, and then they didn\u2019t reply me back, but I went to labor department and the labor department send me in the program, and then I\u2019m in the program for now.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: And how long ago was that?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: I will be fourteen years.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: What positions have you held in those fourteen years?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Food service worker.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: OK. What\u2019s a typical day like for you? What time do you start and what do you do?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: In the morning we come at six o\u2019clock and we leave in two o\u2019clock. When I come sometimes I\u2019m on dishes, sometimes I\u2019m serving the children, a week each. Like this week I\u2019m on plates.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: Oh, so you rotate?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Yea. Two weeks we\u2019re on plates, and two weeks we\u2019re in front, and then cooking.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: Are there any challenges? What\u2019s the biggest challenges you face in doing your job?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Sometimes being rough, but sometimes it\u2019s fine. Sometimes a lot of work, a lot of work on dishes. But for the children, it\u2019s alright, but when on dishes \u2013 and sometimes we have to mop everywhere and clean everywhere tidy.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: What\u2019s your favorite part of your job? What do you like to do best?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: What I want to do best is wash dishes, because sometimes when I mop I\u2019m feeling my stomach, you know, so I prefer the dishes but I have to do it, I have to mop.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: What changes have you seen in the program over those fourteen years?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Sometimes we not see no changing. The changing is the changing of food for the children. And sometimes they chew anything good, and sometimes they just drop it, and sometimes they\u2019re eating it good.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: Do you have any memorable stories about special children you\u2019ve served or people you\u2019ve worked with over the years?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: Oh, we\u2019ve got children. They alright. They never bring devilness for until now. They never tell me nothing. They say, \u201cGood morning.\u201d \u201cGood afternoon my lady.\u201d I say, \u201cGood afternoon my son. How are you today?\u201d They tell me, \u201cI\u2019m good.\u201d They\u2019re always greeting me and I\u2019m always greeting them too.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: What advice would you give someone who was thinking about trying to get a job in child nutrition?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: I would tell them it\u2019s a good thing, because it\u2019s [unintelligible] taking care, to know more to do to develop their sense to know more about children, are they behaving good or well, you know, and the program is good.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: Anything else you\u2019d like to add today?<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: I like the program very much, but sometimes it\u2019s been rough – because sometimes \u2013 eventually I want to retire, because I have the sugar, and I have the pressure, and sometimes it\u2019s been rough for me to mop and mop and mop, but I\u2019m doing all my work good, and it\u2019s fourteen years I\u2019ll be there. But I like it, I like the program.<\/p>\n JB<\/strong>: Well thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Good luck.<\/p>\n AB<\/strong>: OK. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interviewee: Anestasie Blyden Interviewer: Jeffrey Boyce Date: June 27, 2016 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5727"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10313,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5727\/revisions\/10313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}