A Kitimat City High (KCH) program turns out to be a sweet success for a group of students after they spent a year and a half of taking care of two beehives.
This segment of the Outdoor Education program began after the school received a $1,800 farm grant. The program was also made possible through a $6,000 donation from LNG Canada that went towards supporting the “Sense of Place” program.
Following the purchase of all the equipment, the queen bee was introduced to the hive and the process of creating honey began. Once the process was done it was up to the students to collect the honey.
“Most recently, in the last two weeks they spun the frames in the beehives to extract the honey,” said Spencer Edwards, Coordinator outdoor education.
Programs like this have existed in the past and this was one of the first to have a result as large as this. Now, 24 total jars of honey are going to be sold.
Jars of Coast Mountain Honey are available at the Vitality Centre for $15. The labels for the honey jars were also made by students from the school. Vitality is not taking any of the profits from the honey and all the money collected from the harvest will go directly back to KCH.
“Ultimately I’m really excited that they’re doing something they can be proud of producing something that the community can see because they need to be proud of the work that they have done,” Andrea DeSousa owner of Vitality.
The money that this project makes will be used for more equipment to continue this honey-making program.
Edwards would also like to thank DeSousa along with all the staff at Vitality for the opportunity to sell their honey.