MOUNTAIN MAID TRAINING CENTER

"Winning with inferior resources: a superior strategy for helping the poor"
 

Mountain Maid Training Center (MMTC) stands for the Good Shepherd Sisters, the lay staff, the student workers, and the men and women in the fields and orchards that are the sources of Mountain Maid products. It stands as well for those who stay in line to buy those products, especially those who do so, knowing that they are sending students through college who would otherwise be among the countless Filipino youth with dreams unfulfilled.

    In anticipation of the new millennium the Asian Institute of Management, in doing case studies in development management, launched a search for projects that best demonstrated the theme: "Winning with Inferior Resources: A Superior Strategy for Helping the Poor." Its working hypothesis was that those who want to help the poor or development managers succeed, like revolutionaries, due to the totality of their commitment, the superiority of their strategy, and the superbness of their project. Recognition was given to three developmental ventures of the Good Shepherd Sisters together with their lay cooperators and the people they were serving. These were the Alay Kapwa Project of Malate, Bahay Pastulan in Tagaytay, and Mountain Maid Training Center in Baguio. These were announced on January 18, 2000.

    Research on the above three projects was done by Victor S. Limlingan and we draw heavily from his research paper covering MMTC. His task was to focus on its "crafting of a successful strategy so superior that the disadvantage of inferior resources becomes irrelevant." He became acquainted with Good Shepherd Baguio’s beginnings, how the poverty was borne by all, how the Good Shepherd Sisters begged for the rejects of the fruit and vegetable vendors, how one day the mother of Sr. Mary Carmel Medalla got wind of her daughter exchanging empty milk cans for vegetables in the market and wept over the fate of her daughter. Mother Mary John of the Cross Kroner was the Provincial Superior at the time who had been Sr. Mary Carmel’s Novice Mistress. A wise Superior, as well as an accomplished cook, Mother John had actually worked as a young girl in the strawberry farms of the United States. She noted that strawberries abounded in Baguio whose ideal climate assured a steady supply of this fruit that had been brought over with American colonization.

    In the summer months of March, April, and May the influx of tourists jacked up the sale of fresh strawberries in Baguio. Being quite perishable, however, fresh strawberries could not fill the bill for the traditional pasalubong for relatives awaiting their return. That was the cue for the production of strawberry jam. Mother John had the skill and the technology. This was transferred fittingly to Sr. Mary Carmel Medalla who remembers the tedious process of preparing the strawberries, from hulling to peeling the soft skin to stirring the increasingly viscous jam, under the watchful eye of Mother John. MMTC’s standards for quality control were set right then. Self-reliance, too, was in the horizon.

    They had the strategic location for a ready market. Close by was Mines View Park, a tourist haven, and a captive market for the strawberry jam. It was an instant success. Limlingan pointed out in his research that the strawberry jam project succeeded for several reasons traceable to the Sisters’ culinary talents and inner resources. These reasons we quote directly from him:

1. They were offering an "imported" American product in the sense that through the "technology transfer" facilitated by Mother Mary John Kroner, they had a product exactly like, if not better than the highly-priced imported American product;
2. They were offering a product made by nuns. This assured the consumers that the produce was not sourced from inferior strawberries, that the ingredients were first class, that the process was clean and the quality and quantity of the contents were as described on the label;
3. They were offering a product made by the hands of religious, a product characteristic highly appealing to Filipinos who consider anything touched by religious to have been blessed;
4. Their clients were willing to pay for a high quality product while helping the nuns at the same time.

    What the business world categorizes as superior strategy is actually no more than the expected lifestyle of Good Shepherd Sisters inspired by their Mother Foundress, St. Mary Euphrasia’s words addressed to them, and addressed in turn by them to everyone with whom they work: "Do well all that you do."

    Every new Sister assigned to Baguio was highly motivated to offer her gifts to the community enterprise. Hidden talents of every sort surfaced in concrete ways such as the expansion of early product lines to include peanut brittle, ham and bacon, breads, artificial flowers, and all-occasion cards and decors. With the arrival of Sr. Mary Ann Fiel in 1994, a bakeshop was soon opened whose first avid customers were the early morning joggers who rewarded themselves with freshly baked ensaymadas and brewed coffee available in the store. But we are going ahead of ourselves.

    The arrival of Sr. Mary Assumption Ocampo in December 1975 was a watershed in MMTC’s history. She contributed greatly to the increase in diversification of MMTC products and therefore also of the volume of production. A shift had been made in the human development approach of the Sisters. Free scholarships were seen to foster dependency. They instituted a system whereby students could earn their way through college if they were willing to do so through MMTC. In the nineties when a further shift focused the Good Shepherd Sisters’ ministry in Baguio on the youth of the Cordillera, it was envisioned that, after graduation, they would render service in their areas of origin.

    It was Sr. Mary Assumption who suggested the opening of a store outlet right on the grounds. In that way tourists would know a fixed place where they could buy Good Shepherd products. It was she who thought of branding them all as Mountain Maid, with their very own logo. She saw to the streamlining of product lines, introduced bulk purchasing, and set up an accounting system. When the supply of strawberries went threateningly low, she borrowed the practice of Chinese traders of advancing capital to the farmers in exchange for a steady supply. There was a difference, Limlingan notes. The Sisters did not charge interest.

    Most of the product sources were seasonal. It was imperative to look for a year-round, locally grown source. The answer was ube. And so today customers line up for hours to buy Mountain Maid Ube Jam, sometimes without success, because it is available for only an hour in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. To the complaining, sometimes excusably angry and frustrated customer, Sister Mary Carmel would say: "We are so sorry, but necessarily we work around our students’ schedules and our production is limited."

    So we come to the question: What is in this for the MMTC student workers, the lay staff, and the Good Shepherd Sisters?

    For the student workers:

• 50% above the minimum daily wage for the aggregate hours they are working
• Double pay on holidays and overtime
• First aid and medicines
• A ten-day paid leave
• A subsidized lunch, snacks morning and afternoon
• Bonus and a terminal bonus on completion of their course. In the year 2000, each got an additional Jubilee Year bonus of PhP3,600
• A chance to learn skills by which they could one day be entrepreneurs themselves

    For the lay staff:

• 50% above the minimum daily wage
• Double pay on holidays and overtime
• Medical and disability benefits
• SSS/PhilHealth
• 13^th month pay
• Two monthly bonuses
• A ten-day paid leave
• A subsidized lunch, snacks morning and afternoon
• Above all, an unquantifiable share in the ministry of the Good Shepherd Sisters

    For the Good Shepherd Sisters:

• A means to support the various ministries of the Good Shepherd Baguio Community as well as the ministries of other Good Shepherd communities in the Philippines that are dependent on the Provincialate
• Above all, a precious share in the work of the original Good Shepherd in fulfillment of vows made to follow Him for life