SOCIAL ENTERPRISE Sister Guadalupe Bautista (high) says Mountain Maid Coaching Heart’s contemporary ube (purple yam) and strawberries are sourced from native farmers who’ve change into its companions in bringing high quality meals merchandise to its loyal patrons, lots of them vacationers who don’t thoughts the queue at Good Shepherd convent on Gibraltar Highway in Baguio Metropolis. Gross sales have helped ship the coaching heart’s younger staff, seen right here with Sister Guadalupe, to highschool. —Photographs by Neil Clark Ongchangco
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — It appears the vacation crowd in Baguio Metropolis can not have sufficient of Mountain Maid Coaching Heart’s merchandise, notably its ube or purple yam jam, that every buyer who queues up outdoors its Gibraltar Highway retailer is allotted solely two bottles to buy.
So scorching a commodity has the jam, made by the scholar staff below the Spiritual of the Good Shepherd, change into that resellers have devised underhanded methods to get across the two-bottle-only rule.
Typically, complete relations, neighbors, mates line as much as avail themselves of two bottles every, later to be resold at greater costs in different components of town and even of the nation. Or they’d gown up like out-of-towners full with a small canine tucked in a shoulder bag. Sister Guadalupe Bautista, supervisor of the Good Shepherd enterprise, has nearly seen all of it.
The demand is such that well-meaning neighborhood members, together with Mayor Benjamin Magalong, have urged to her to extend and return to prepandemic manufacturing, rent extra workers, assist extra college students go to school, earn more money, franchise, export, have one other retailer or promote on-line.
The kitchen can course of solely 20 tons of ube in a month, down from 50 tons earlier than the pandemic. And but these don’t appear sufficient to fulfill the demand worsened by the issue of the resellers. Sister Guadalupe says, “Earlier than and after the pandemic, the problem was provide couldn’t deal with the demand of ube jam and strawberry jam, our bestsellers. Our philosophy is, we promote solely what we’re capable of produce. We don’t need to be slaves of the market.”
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She ticks off different causes the social enterprise can not go bigger in scale:
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- “We’re not a typical meals manufacturing facility that operates 24/7 primarily for revenue. It’s a social enterprise engaged within the meals enterprise. As such, those that profit probably the most are the stakeholders: the student-workers, farmers and workers. Whether it is for revenue solely, the research of the scholars will undergo, the sisters won’t have time to hope, the full-time workers will likely be overstretched.
- “We’re okay that Mountain Maid Coaching and Improvement Basis Inc. is now not on the listing of the highest 10 taxpayers of Baguio. As a small social enterprise, we nonetheless remit month-to-month to the Bureau of Inner Income 12 p.c VAT, pay quarterly and annual taxes.
- “The Division of Labor and Employment (Dole) insurance policies are completely different for small-scale enterprises, for medium and large-scale enterprises. We meet the foundations and laws of small enterprise, that means, we’ve got much less then 100 staff, college students and full-time workers.
- “To develop means hiring in-house licensed mechanical engineer, physician, dentist, nurse. As a small-scale enterprise, we’ve got memorandum of settlement with consultants and medical personnel.
- “As a substitute of increasing, we encourage different businessmen and ladies to make use of our social enterprise mannequin: put individuals first, share the advantages of their enterprise with their staff. A few of our advantages are interest-free housing for full-time workers; free over-the-counter medicines; free morning and afternoon snacks; sponsored lunch (P5 rice and viand); instructional loans; instructional help; P12,000 money help on the dying of a direct member of the family; money items twice a yr; birthday items; Christmas items; accident insurance coverage moreover what’s required by regulation like Social Safety System, PhilHealth, Pag-Ibig, Thirteenth-month pay, vacation pay; free scholarships for employees who need to take grasp’s diploma; values formation and different progress actions throughout paid time; free use of sports activities services; and particular meals on feast days and anniversaries.”
Farmers as companions
Sister Guadalupe has at all times thought of it the peak of irony that farmers, the producers of meals, are among the many neediest individuals who can not even afford to ship their youngsters to highschool. She says, “We contemplate the farmers who develop ube and strawberry as ‘companions in mission as they provide the middle with the uncooked supplies utilized in manufacturing. As a social enterprise, they’re stakeholders and ought to profit like the scholar staff who work and research. We use honest commerce practices in coping with the farmers within the meals chain. They’re assured of a gentle marketplace for their merchandise. The costs of ube and strawberry are fastened. That’s mutually helpful.”
These ube farmers at the moment are a part of associations within the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Benguet and La Union. How has this modified their lives? Sister Guadalupe recollects a GMA TV anchor who requested the identical query. The reply given by a farmer was this: “Since we partnered with Mountain Maid, we’re capable of ship our kids to highschool, stay in first rate homes, present meals on the desk, even buy secondhand autos for our farm use.”
The middle’s social employee took years to arrange 38 registered associations of ube farmers from these provinces with 500 farmer-members. Ube is a aspect crop, not a primary crop, for the farmers. In the course of the annual meeting of farmers, challenges are mentioned, costs of ube are agreed upon, supply dates all year long are scheduled. In the course of the harvest season when ube is plentiful, the common value of ube is P50 a kilo. In the course of the wet season when ube is scarce, the worth goes as much as P75 a kilo.
One product that’s seasonal is the strawberry jam, though it was the primary Good Shepherd product in 1953. Strawberries had been the native selection, small and candy. Sister Guadalupe says, “The sisters simply purchased what was out there available in the market. Because the variety of vacationers and the demand for the jam elevated, the sisters supplied capital to the farmers, curiosity free. The superior capital is then deducted from the worth paid for the strawberries. Costs are fastened, helpful to the farmers and to the coaching heart. The farms are in Atok, Longlong and Puguis (in Benguet), removed from the strawberry fields watered by the polluted Balili River. The varieties right now are Candy Charlie, Camarosa, Chicago, Albion of Australia, San Andre of California, Crimson Rhapsody, Competition and Japanese. For our jam, we favor the Candy Charlie that are purple, agency, not too watery.”
In October throughout Indigenous Peoples Month celebration, 15 strawberry farmers joined the middle’s Mass, program and dances. Sister Guadalupe spoke with a girl farmer who has been supplying the middle along with her fruits for 20 years. The nun requested her how life has modified since she partnered with the middle. Just like the ube farmer, she mentioned she lives in an honest home and gives for the wants of the household. Two of her daughters have completed faculty and are gainfully employed, one on the Philippine Army Academy and one other at Dole.
Working college students
There are 55 working college students on the heart, down from 200 earlier than the pandemic years. Sister Guadalupe explains that the core program of the middle is the student-workers’ program. “Though they’re few in quantity after the pandemic, the coaching they obtain stays holistic. All features are lined—tutorial, social, monetary, bodily, religious, emotional. All progress actions are achieved throughout paid time like Eucharistic celebrations, values formation, catechism courses, free acupuncture remedy by a health care provider who comes twice a month.”
These college students study monetary administration since they’re required to submit a two-week funds which they withdraw from their ATM playing cards. The remainder of the wage is deposited of their checking account for large bills like tuition. Sister Guadalupe says, “We encourage them to save lots of for his or her greater years actions like subject work, on-the-job coaching, follow educating, and so forth. Throughout their greater years, they’ve much less time to work. One scholar had financial savings of P170,000 when he graduated from faculty.”
Time administration or tips on how to steadiness time for teachers and work is one huge problem the scholar staff face. Some are too drained or sleepy to review after working or going through many tutorial calls for. In consequence, they absent themselves from work. If there’s a battle, research prevail, Sister Guadalupe says.
BESTSELLERS Ube and strawberry jams and different baked merchandise are among the many bestsellers at Good Shepherd’s retailer in Baguio.
The middle additionally educated the monks and workers in Guimaras, notably Brother Rafael, who’s accountable for meals manufacturing. He despatched some workers members to Baguio to discover ways to make lengua de gato cookies and peanut brittle. The Guimaras model of lengua de gato has mango bits whereas their brittle is made from cashew nuts that are plentiful within the Visayan province.
Sister Guadalupe says, “We change greatest practices. Right here in Baguio, we don’t give credit score. All transactions are in money. Brother Rafael provides credit score to his prospects. Amassing or depositing postdated checks proved to be a problem. I instructed him that since their merchandise are wanted, he ought to demand money funds.”
‘Power of nature’
The nun, who’s an brisk 81 and a drive of nature in her convent, has spent 58 years with the Good Shepherd congregation, 14 years of which had been missions within the US (Los Angeles and Las Vegas) and Rome, Italy. Within the Philippines, her assignments had been in Buhi in Camarines Sur, Malabon, Quezon Metropolis, Cagayan de Oro and Baguio throughout martial regulation and Baguio once more for 20 years.
She discloses, “I could have instructed you that I’m additionally a breast most cancers survivor for 17 years. I joined the Good Shepherd at age 21 coming from a protected life, the youngest of six siblings. What I’m right now I owe to the Good Shepherd who shaped me, supplied all of the alternatives for progress, challenged me to develop my world. The Good Shepherd is in 68 nations, and I used to be despatched to go to half of those nations within the 5 continents whereas on task in Rome not solely as soon as however a number of instances.”
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What retains her going when she ought to have retired at 60? She says, “It’s sharing within the mission of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd seems to be for the misplaced, tends the injured, brings again those that have strayed, restores the dignity of the downtrodden, retains the well being in view. It is vitally biblical.”
