The Sioux Honey Association Co-op, in partnership with Food City, participated in a Coalition For Kids after-school program’s interactive lesson on honey and honeybee pollination.
The event March 12 at the Johnson City, Tennessee, nonprofit was part of a broader effort to make a record donation of honey by the Sioux Honey Association Co-op, a group of more than 175 beekeepers.
Food City helped donate two-and-a-half tons of Sue Bee clover honey to three child-focused organizations: Coalition for Kids; Boys & Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley in Knoxville; and Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Virginia.
The honey will be used as part of meals and snacks for after-school programs, organizers said. The donation of 540 cases (with 6,480 bottles of honey) was divided evenly among the three nonprofits.
“It’s a ton of honey – actually about two-and-a-half tons,” said Kevin Hueser, president and CEO of the Sioux Honey co-op. “But it will go fast; it should certainly be gone before the three-year expiration date for honey passes.”
A group of about 50 children at Coalition For Kids learned about worker, drone and queen bees, as well as how honeybees help pollinate everyday foods such as almonds, melons and avocados.
To demonstrate the pollination process, children played “honeybees” with yellow cotton balls, while other students portrayed “flowers” by holding cups filled with different colored glitter.
The children learned how honeybees carry pollen from flower to flower, and how cross-pollination happens as pollens mix.
“It was a fun exercise for our after-school kids,” said Randy Hensley, executive director at Coalition for Kids. “And the honey donation will help with snacks for the kids in our after-school programs.”
The Sioux Honey Co-op plans to make more donations this summer after the honey harvest season.
“As beekeepers, we are passionate not only about our honey, but also about giving back to the communities we serve,” said David Coy, a third-generation co-op beekeeper whose family tends to beehives in Perkinston, Mississippi, and Hebron, North Dakota.