Our Central Village partner factory employs 200 staff to produce the foods in our Made in Jamaica range including Jerk Seasoning, Ackee and Callaloo.
A tight-knit community; many of the employees live in the local area and their children tend to go to one of two neighbourhood schools: White Marl Primary School and Jose Marti Technical High School, both of which underwent extensive renovations as part of our recent birthday celebrations.
These works represent just the start of our partnerships with both schools, and we will be announcing more developments in the near future. You can see some of the renovations and hear from the school's incredible teachers in the short video below.
White Marl Primary School
White Marl Primary School, which houses 1,300 pupils aged 4-10, was fitted out with cupboards in the guidance council department and a security guard post with toilet facilities, the latter of which was particularly important as it helps to guarantee the safety of the children, whilst also keeping the security guard protected from the radiant Jamaican sun.
Jose Marti Technical High School
Built by the Cuban Government in the 1960s, at the height of Cuba’s tensions with USA, Jose Marti Technical High School’s origins were controversial, not least because the school was visiting by the then Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who gifted the school 4 school buses.
Many years on, with the school now in the hands of the Jamaican Government, it now offers valuable vocational training including auto mechanics, information technology and drafting.
Housing considerably more students than their space is designed to hold, the education of the pupils is a testament to the hard-working teachers and staff at the school, and Tropical Sun is proud to have contributed in a small way through refurbishments to the lecture theatre, junior staff room and junior school classroom, including fixing holes in the roof, reupholstering 180 chairs and installing partitions to block open space atop classroom dividing walls.
