Meet Jackson, the newest member of the hen house staff in Campeche. Jackson calls Fon Ibo home, & has been interested in agronomy since he was in grade school. He regularly works in the Lekòl Jezi-Mari school garden, & is happy whenever he sees young people engaged in garden activities. Jackson values income-generating agricultural activities, especially in an agrarian community like Gros Morne. Jackson regularly attends agronomy training & seminars in the local area, & someday he hopes to further his formal education in a university agronomy program.
Jackson applied to work at the hen house because he knows how important good quality eggs are for the local economy. In Gros Morne, many people make money by preparing egg sandwiches. If they buy a carton of eggs, they have to know that they are making a good investment in fresh eggs, because if too many eggs spoil before they can use them they will also lose their slim profit margin. In the immediate area around the hen house, there are many economically disadvantaged families. For some, eggs will be a major component of their weekly nutrition intake. Jackson strives to receive each client, whether the neighborhood kid from down the street or the big restauranter from town, with dignity.
On a typical day, Jackson leaves his home in Fon Ibo at 5am, before sunrise. Most days he bikes the 4 miles to the hen house so that he arrives in plenty of time to prepare for the morning feeding & egg collection. After updating the egg collection spreadsheets, Jackson receives some clients & then prepares to feed the hens & collect eggs again at noon. He repeats this process in the afternoon, before finishing with the final egg collection report around 6pm. Then he bikes toward home, usually stopping at Kay Gilbert, a local shop, for a cold drink & some pate, a fried dough street food filled with sauteed veggies, before heading home. On Fridays, Jackson works with the rest of the hen house staff to make feed for the hens. This hard work, & Jackson usually stops to swim in the river on Friday afternoons when they finish making the feed.
Jackson has enjoyed his first month of work at the hen house, & is quickly learning the nuances of controlling feed & water variables to enable the hens to lay at their optimal level.