Tobago mourns Store Bay cuisine icon Miss Trim

To­ba­go is mourn­ing the pass­ing of one of the is­land’s ma­tri­archs and culi­nary pi­o­neers, Gre­ta Trim, fond­ly known as Miss Trim, who helped make Store Bay a pop­u­lar spot for lo­cal cui­sine. Known for its crab and dumpling and oth­er savoury de­lights, Miss Trim’s Foods has be­come a sta­ple for vis­i­tors at the pop­u­lar bathing fa­cil­i­ty.

Trim, 90, died on Ju­ly 16 lead­ing a lega­cy of ser­vice, sac­ri­fice and love.

To­ba­go West MP Joel Samp­son paid trib­ute to Trim in a Face­book post, not­ing she pre­vi­ous­ly served as the rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Crown Point, Bon Ac­cord and Canaan.

He said, “I had the priv­i­lege of know­ing Miss Trim and her fam­i­ly well. I knew the force of na­ture that she was, the strength of the home she built and the tremen­dous in­flu­ence she car­ried through­out her com­mu­ni­ty.”

Samp­son re­called the benev­o­lence of Trim even at the ex­pense of her busi­ness.

“At Store Bay, if some­one did not have enough mon­ey, she would still fill their bowl, hand it to them and tell them to go.

“Feed­ing peo­ple was not sim­ply her busi­ness. It was part of who she was.”

He said her will­ing­ness to feed and care for peo­ple has been passed on to the next gen­er­a­tions.

“Through Miss Trim’s Foods, she helped pre­serve and share the au­then­tic flavours of To­ba­go with the world. Her food be­came part of the To­ba­go ex­pe­ri­ence, and gen­er­a­tions of vis­i­tors came to as­so­ciate her name with warmth, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, flavour and home.”

Dur­ing a re­cent qual­i­ty en­hance­ment work­shop for Store Bay ven­dors, Store Bay Beach Fa­cil­i­ty co-or­di­na­tor Sadie-Monique Har­ry-Al­fred paid trib­ute to Trim and the oth­er women as one of the “sweet-hands” who helped build the lega­cy of Store Bay food ven­dors.

Samp­son de­scribed Trim as “larg­er than life” and a strong, styl­ish and out­spo­ken per­son.

He added that her wit­ti­ness made him slight­ly afraid of her as he re­torts would leave every­one in up­roar.

“On­ly re­cent­ly, I laughed with the fam­i­ly about a promise I made to her that I did not get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ful­fill. I know Miss Trim well enough to be­lieve she may still find a way to come and pinch my big toe over it. That was the spir­it of the woman we knew and loved, full of hu­mour, per­son­al­i­ty and life.”

He said Trim’s chil­dren, grand­chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren con­tin­ue to make a ster­ling con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­ety.

“Their suc­cess­es stand up­on the foun­da­tion she laid, the val­ues she in­stilled and the sac­ri­fices she made.

Miss Trim’s lega­cy ex­tends far be­yond the suc­cess of Miss Trim’s Foods. It lives in the gen­er­a­tions she nur­tured, the peo­ple she wel­comed and cared for, and the last­ing place she holds in To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al and com­mu­ni­ty sto­ry.”