Honey money goes to Worthing Leisure Centre crèche as thank you for hosting hives

Money made through honey collected from hives at Worthing Leisure Centre has been ploughed back into the creche there.
By Elaine Hammond
Published 13th Nov 2019, 16:56 BST
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Worthing Honey Collective, a We Are FoodPioneers project, manages the hives at both Worthing Leisure Centre and Splashpoint Leisure Centre.

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Staff and children at the Worthing Leisure Centre creche with the new toysStaff and children at the Worthing Leisure Centre creche with the new toys
Staff and children at the Worthing Leisure Centre creche with the new toys

There was a bumper crop at the Durrington leisure centre in this first year, plus an exclusive 12 jars from Splashpoint in East Worthing.

It was agreed the money raised would be donated to the creche to buy new toys for the children.

Duncan Anderson, South Downs Leisure chief executive, said: “This is a great story of amazing partnership work between South Downs Leisure, the Worthing Honey Collective and, of course, the bees themselves.

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“Our FIT4 members help to support the bees and in turn the bees have supported our creche.”

Collecting honey from the beehive framesCollecting honey from the beehive frames
Collecting honey from the beehive frames

Duncan was one of the lucky customers to purchase the Splashpoint honey, which was sold at the GreenDreams festival at Field Place.

Debs Butler, project organiser at Worthing Honey Collective, said: “There is a limited edition of only 12 jars of honey from the bees at Splashpoint as we decided to leave most of the stores up there for the bees this year, as they work a lot harder up there.

“We have focussed on harvesting a bumper crop from the hive at Worthing Leisure Centre, which will help to support next year’s activity.

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“It really has been a community effort and a better first year than we could have ever hoped for. It just feels right to support South Downs Leisure in some way, following all the support they have given us to get us to this stage.”

Debs Butler, project organiser at Worthing Honey CollectiveDebs Butler, project organiser at Worthing Honey Collective
Debs Butler, project organiser at Worthing Honey Collective

Staff and children at the creche were delighted to have lots of new toys to play with, and to know they were purchased using profits from hives at the centre.

It is hoped there will be many more honey harvests over the coming years.

The hives were introduced to help repopulate the honey bee colonies in Worthing, due to rapidly declining numbers.

To find out more about bee keeping, get involved as a volunteer or support the Worthing Honey Collective, email [email protected].

Visit www.foodpioneers.org.uk to sign up for the mailing list.

Related topics:Money