Businesswoman and supplier of locally grown vegetables for the School Lunch Program, Helen Young, has reason to believe that she’s being discriminated against by the Department of Agriculture.
And the latest move by the department to suspend the sale of locally grown produce except for those grown hydroponically, according to Mrs Young, has unfairly cut off income for not just farmers but landowners that farmers lease from.
Mrs. Young was specifically named by officers of the Farmers Coop who objected to her inclusion as a supplier in the latest round of bidding for the School Lunch Program.
The Coop officers claimed that Mrs Young doesn’t have a farm and her selection as a supplier again is contrary to assurances that Governor Lolo gave them that no one that doesn’t own a farm will be eligible to bid.
Mrs Young has provided KHJ News with copies of her US passport, she’s a naturalized US citizen, her American Samoan voter ID, her certificate of successful completion of the Environmental Protection Agency, course for pesticide application, a copy of the lease agreement for her farm in Lepuapua, and the October 11, letter of award from the Chief Procurement Officer to her for the most recent School Lunch Program bid for local produce.
She also showed her Employer Identification number for tax purposes.
This second bid award to Mrs Young doing business as Four Season Harvest is to supply string beans, corn, cucumbers, pumpkin, sweet potato and papaya.
The names of seven Chinese citizens deemed certified by the Department of Agriculture are cited in the letter of award.
Mrs Young says she only has two Chinese farmers here while the rest have returned to China.
The businesswoman says she has fulfilled all the requirements of the bid notice and has reason to believe that she’s being discriminated against with the recent complaints from the leaders of the Farmers Coop, and the Department of Agriculture’s suspension of all locally grown vegetables for School Lunch and sale of the same, except for produce that’s grown hydroponically.
Mrs Young‘s father is a Samoan Chinese from Salelologa, Savaii.
She was born in Asia but grew up in the US.
She moved here 21 years ago and owns the Hong Kong restaurant in Nu’uuli and other businesses.
Mrs. Young said first the complaints were that she was a foreigner and that she didn’t have a farm.
But she’s satisfied both. With regards to the suspension of locally grown produce for School Lunch Mrs Young said her farm in Lepuapua has been inspected regularly and the most recent one by Agriculture the week before last, gave an all clear.
So she doesn’t understand why Agriculture would put a blanket stop on everyone’s vegetables instead of just the ones that didn’t pass their inspections.
Mrs. Young said it’s not just the farmers whose income are impacted by Agriculture’s decision but also landowners who lease out their unused tracts of land to non Samoan farmers.
According to Mrs Young, farming’s a part of the territory’s economic development and she’s doing her part through her businesses to employ Samoans.
She pointed out that all her restaurant employees are Samoan.
She says she met the bid requirements of the School Lunch program bid and her farm passed the department of Agriculture’s inspections and she’s hopeful that her farm will be allowed to once again supply produce for the school lunch program.
Mrs. Young makes the point that this is an American territory and there’s opportunities for everyone to help develop American Samoa’s economy.
She’s hopeful that discriminatory practices are stopped because they prohibit the territory from moving forward.
Mrs Young said she normally keeps out of the press but she felt compelled to clear her name which has been muddied by the complaints from leaders of the Farmers Coop.
