{"id":5775,"date":"2016-09-01T11:56:05","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T16:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/?p=5775"},"modified":"2017-05-19T08:19:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T13:19:57","slug":"cora-tonge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/news\/cora-tonge\/","title":{"rendered":"Cora Tonge\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interviewee<\/strong>: Cora Tonge\"\"<\/a>
\nInterviewer<\/strong>: Jeffrey Boyce
\nDate<\/strong>: June 27, 2016<\/p>\n

Description<\/strong>: Cora Tonge is a foodservice worker in the Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Boyce<\/strong>: I\u2019m Jeffrey Boyce and it is June 27, 2016. I\u2019m here on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands this morning with Cora Tonge. Welcome Cora and thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Could we begin today by you telling me a little bit about yourself, where you were born and where you grew up?<\/p>\n

Cora Tonge<\/strong>: I was born in Antigua.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: So you went to school on Antigua?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: [Nods her head affirmatively.]<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: Did they have a lunch program there at the school?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: No. You just have to carry your lunch, or go home and eat your lunch and then come back to the school.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: OK. So was that a British island?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Yes.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: OK. So they didn\u2019t do lunch programs.<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: No.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: OK. So what brought you to St. Thomas?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: My mother send for me here, get me green card, naturalize. I have children born here. I have five children born here. Five them go one school. Every one of them, and then they come here. They go either McCann then graduate from either McCann. They go to college. They have their bachelor, their master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: That\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: So I don\u2019t have no children no more no school. I have one little granddaughter and she go New Testament Academy. And then she promote from the kindergarten to the first grade.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: That\u2019s wonderful. How did you get involved working with child nutrition?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Before I get fulltime I just do part-time. And I continue work and work and work until I get hired in \u201998, \u201998 when I get fulltime, December 7, \u201998.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: You\u2019ve been doing it a while then.<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: I have in eighteen years.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: And what\u2019s your job title?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Food service worker.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: OK. And what is a day like for you?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Good. I have no problem. Good.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: What are your duties? What do you do during the day? You come in at what, six?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Yea, and stay \u2018til two.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: And what do you do during that time?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: You wash dishes, you do different work in here, you do different stuff. You go on the line, you feed the children. And then when you finish you come out here, you clean up. Some wash dishes, some wash the pots and pans.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: What do you like most about your job?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Everything. I love it.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: What are some of the children\u2019s favorite food items? What do they like to eat?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: They like hamburger, they like anything, but not the fish. They don\u2019t like the fish. Like we do salmon, tuna, no, they don\u2019t like that. They love veggies, veggie burgers, and they love the pizza.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: What changes have you seen in the program over these eighteen years you\u2019ve been working?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Everything good to me, everything good.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: Do you have any memorable stories about kids you\u2019ve served or people you\u2019ve worked with over the years?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Oh, well, you know, you meet good and you meet bad. But we don\u2019t study that. I love here. When I go to Governor\u2019s School [unintelligible] eighteen years, I ask for a transfer because, umm, it was too much for me. And I asked the transfer, so Ms. Isaak put me here.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: What advice would you give someone who was thinking about trying to get a job like yours today?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: Then when they ask I tell her where to go, but I don\u2019t tell them, make them come and see for their self.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: Anything else you\u2019d like to add today?<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: A good job, you know, a good job, good for work, you know, but the salary so small.<\/p>\n

JB<\/strong>: Well thanks for taking the time to talk with me.<\/p>\n

CT<\/strong>: OK. Thank you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interviewee: Cora Tonge 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":[1,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775"}],"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=5775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6753,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775\/revisions\/6753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theicn.org\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}