PUBLIC SERVICE HOSTS FIRST EVER FARMER’S MARKET

The Ministry of Governance, Public Service Reform, Citizen Empowerment, Social Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs hosted a farmers’ market day as part of the activities leading up to public service day.

The event was held on Friday, September 30 2022 on the ground floor of the Government Headquarters, where business owners in the public service were able to showcase their products and services.

Chief Personnel Officer, Ms. Edith Thomas Roberts says this farmers market falls under the health and wellness aspect of the public service day activities.

“Included in our activities is a health and wellness programme and under the health and wellness programme we are introducing the farmers market as one of the many activities that we are undertaking in promotion of health and wellness to ensure that we have healthy  and resilient public officers,” CPO Roberts stated.

Mrs. Thomas-Roberts says the farmer’s market is aimed at promoting heathy living among the public service.

“The event here is meant to promote healthy living, promote local products and to encourage our public officers to continue to contribute towards a healthy lifestyle, and to ensure that everything we do is in promotion of our health and we can live healthy lives,” she noted.

A variety of products and services were on display, ranging from agricultural produce to locally made hair and skin care treatments.

“We have agricultural produce, we have a large variety of plants, skin care products, hair care products, juices, smoothies, coffee, poultry and snacks. We have a wide range of products from different public officers. We want to continue to encourage you to grow your own produce, do your own backyard gardening, consume local products and engage in health and wellness activities so we can continue to live healthy lives,” CPO Roberts added.  

Acting Secretary to the Cabinet and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Governance, Ms. Careen Prevost says the farmer’s market is an opportunity to showcase what is being produced locally in all sectors.

“I particularly want to highlight the fact that everyone here is a public officer and that this is for us by us. We are putting this on to showcase what we can do locally, it’s also part of our ‘Buy Local Campaign’. We are starting the Independence Celebrations and everything that we have here is made here and grown here and manufactured here,” Ms. Prevost noted.

Minister for Governance, Public Service Reform, Citizen Empowerment, Social Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Hon. Gretta Roberts says this is one way of encouraging citizens to eat what we grow as the country continues to fight anon-communicable diseases.

“All this is an effort to encourage us to eat what we grow and grow what we eat. So we are trying our best in our campaign to fight against the NCDs that are so prevalent in this country. So we need a productive workforce, a healthy workforce, a healthy people, a healthy nation and we can only do it by starting with our public officers who have shown us today that they can help in ensuring that Dominica remains the healthy nation that it should be. So let us continue in our efforts to eat what we grow and live a healthy lifestyle for a beautiful country,” Hon. Roberts stated.