We’re past the midpoint of back-to-school week, and if you’re still packing processed cheese snacks or carbonated drinks into your child’s lunchbox — stop right now! May we suggest adding a banana or two as a healthier alternative? And you may want to follow suit, and bring a finger to work to eat before or after lunch. The yellow fruit is readily accessible en route to work or while making that school drop-off.

It’s difficult to miss them — green-vested banana vendors strolling between idling motor vehicles at traffic lights, or strategically positioned outside iconic business establishments and city landmarks, eager to capture sales from quick-shuffling pedestrians.

With bagged bananas at the ready (a hand of five retails for $100; the price is slated to be upped to $120 this month), the blue-collar Jamaica Producers street ambassadors have become part of The Rock’s cultural fabric, and help to provide that welcome boost of potassium intake.

“I’ve been selling bananas for almost five years now,” Wayne Kerr shared last Friday afternoon when we crossed paths outside Tastee’s Constant Spring Road location where he’s set up shop to take advantage of the steady stream of patty-buying customers. A deportee, Kerr said he made the decision to become an entrepreneur after landing a job proved quite the task. His workday begins at 10:00 am (“I don’t want my bananas burning in the sun,” he explained) and wraps up whenever the popular patty location closes for the night.

Meanwhile, not far away at the Jamaica Urban Transit Centre’s Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre, Anthony Marshall hawked his bananas. “There are ups and downs,” he told Thursday Life. “But business is good for the most part.” No surprise, really, considering Marshall’s prime location and the hundreds of bus passengers entering and exiting the always-bustling transport centre. Adult women, he disclosed, are his biggest customer demographic.

Directly across the street from Marshall, outside the Jamaica National Building Society corporate offices, we found Sandra Kerr. She’s been selling the yellow fruit for nine months, and for her, working professionals are her core customer base. “The nine-to-five people are who mostly buy,” the floppy-hat-wearing Kerr told us. On average, she sells three boxes of bananas a day, something she is pleased about.

“They’re healthy and good for the appetite,” Kerr said, as yet another customer, making their way across the well-trafficked pedestrian crossing stopped to make a purchase.

It’s reason enough to peel happy.

— Omar Tomlinson