Save the Bees
I feel like a worker bee most days. I do not sleep enough and I run around trying to do as much as I can. The worker bees put in so much effort with very little sleep, just like me. When I was asked to be a Bee Ambassador, I knew it was a perfect position for me.
The Whole Kids Foundation is a nonprofit that was founded by Whole Foods Market. I am drawn to the work that the Whole Kids Foundation does because of their dedication to healthy food for kids. As a healthy school lunch provider and a lifelong natural foods lover, I enjoy supporting the initiatives from the Whole Kids Foundation. The Whole Kids Foundation not only improves kids’ nutrition, they also improve children’s wellness through gardens, salad bars in school, and nutrition education.
For the month of June, their focus is on how we can Save the Bees. Why June? June is National Pollinator month, and this is a perfect time to work together to save the bees.
One-third of all the food you eat is dependent on pollination by bees. One out of every three bites of food you eat is from foods that bees pollinate. Without the bees, we would not be able to eat many of our favorite foods. Without bees, our foods will not be pollinated.
The goal of the Save the Bees campaign is to raise over $100,000 in June, so that 50 schools across the US can receive educational honey bee hive grants. As a Bee Ambassador, I have seen the impact that bees have on all the foods we eat. Please visit my fundraising page and make a donation, no donation is too small.
What are some foods that bees help pollinate?
- apples
- cucumbers
- watermelon
- mango
- kiwi
- stone fruits
- berries
- onions
- cashews
- cherries
- coffee
- walnuts
- lemons
- carrots
- coconuts
- peppers
- tomatoes
- grapes
- and SO much more!
The Give Bees a Chance campaign is made possible by two wonderful sponsors: Cascadian Farms and Wholesum Harvest. Both of these brands grow organic produce and rely on bees to pollinate their crops.
5 fun facts about bees:
- Keep your dandelions! Common yard weeds, including dandelions, are great for bees to feast on. Do not pull out the dandelions, leave some for the bees to enjoy.
- Worker bees like to dance! Worker bees dance in order to communicate where the sweet spots are to pollinate and the angle of their dance points right towards the food source.
- Use ladybugs, praying mantis or spiders in your garden. These insects will protect your garden better than dangerous pesticides will, and they will not harm the bees at all.
- Leave a water bowl for bees to drink! Bees need water on very hot days. Put a shallow bowl of water with some pebbles in it for bees to drink and perch on to rest.
- Honey is the ultimate workout fuel. A teaspoon of honey can power a worker bee to fly one time all the way around the world!
What can you do to help?
- Please visit my fundraising page and make a donation to help save the bees. No donation is too small.
- Plant flowers and create habitats for the bees in your neighborhood. Use plants native to your area. Plant in clusters so that the bees are more likely to find the areas to pollinate.
- Buy local honey, so you can support your local beekeepers.
- Sign up to attend one of the exclusive dinners around the US this week. Each course will feature foods pollinated by bees. Here is the link for the upcoming DC dinner on Tuesday, June 5th at Mi Vida Restaurant. The Austin event is tonight, and Chicago is June 12th and SOLD OUT. New Orleans is June 15th and has a few spaces left as does the Seattle dinner on June 21st.
- Enter below to win 2 tickets to the Washington DC dinner at Mi Vida with Chef Roberto Santibanez and Susanna Trilling.
- Enter below to win a prize pack from the Whole Kids Foundation with a Save the Bees t-shirt, tote bag, and other goodies to help us save the bees.
I love the tee shirts and what a great cause this is! Seriously, everyone needs to help save the bees.
We all need to work together to save the bees! I am trying to do my part and thank you for reading this important piece!
That article was so enlightening. I knew that bees were important but this takes it to another level. It is so nice to support bees and our planet.
Thank you! I am so glad you learned about how important the bees are to us. We need to work together and take care of the bees!
Love coffee! My 98-year old grandfather continues to be a beekeeper as a hobby. We love getting fresh honey from his hives every year!
Your grandfather is SO amazing! Where is his bee hive? I am so impressed that he is still working as a beekeeper.
This is such a wonderful program and yeah for saving the bees. Kids and everyone need to learn how important saving our bees are to the environment.
Bees are crucial to our environment and our food sources. I really hope we can work together to save the bees. Thanks for stopping by.
Nice article
Thanks so much! I hope you will help us save the bees!
Thank you for all the great education!
Thank you! I hope you learned something about saving the bees!
I love this! As a teacher, I’m sure to talk to the kids about bees!
Thank you! We must teach the kids to take care of the bees for sure. Education is a very important part of this campaign.
I heard so much about this lately. We just take bees for granted and they are so important to our ecosystem.
Bees are SO important and people do not realize the terrible circumstances that are going on with the bees. Thank you for reading this post and please help to save the bees!
We love planting flowers to help the bees!
Planting flowers is a great way to help the bees. Thank you for doing your part to save the bees.
We just planted a ton of wild flowers with my 4year old and taught her about the importance of bees and why she shouldn’t be so scared of them as they have a purpose and she loves honey! So she was excited to learn and plant!
What a great way to teach the future generations! Thank you for teaching your daughter how to help the bees.
Thrilled to see people coming together around this important cause. Thanks for teaching me some ways to be a good ally for the bees, like leaving out water for them and using insects instead of pesticides to protect my garden!
We have our little bowl of water and pebbles for our bees to enjoy on our porch. We have seen the bees stopping to rest and take a drink and it is so awesome to know we are helping the bees a little bit.
Mmmm! All the foods bees pollinate are the best! My fav that I couldn’t live without would be watermelon!
I also could not live without watermelon either! We need to save the bees so that we can have watermelon for our children and our children’s children.
I watched a movie about the bees disappearing and I really took it to heart. I don’t remember what it was, but I do, now acknowledge what the bees are meant for and not to disrespect what they do for our society.
I need to find out what movie you saw! This would be great to show to the kids at school. Thanks for reading and helping to save the bees!
What an amazing cause! I just helped with a PBL focused on saving the bees!
Thank you for helping to save the bees with me! It is so important to spread the word.
What a great foundation. We try to help the bees by planting native species of plants and minimizing any chemicals we use in our yard.
Excellent! You are doing a great job and helping to save the bees. Thank you!
This is a great initiative and I’m glad to see it’s still happening again this year even with Amazon purchasing Whole Foods.
Yes! It is important to not lose sight of what is important, saving the bees is of utmost importance and thanks for your help.
Save the bees
Yes, please help to save the bees!
We live in an apartment so we cant plant a garden for them, but evey now and then a bee will fly in attracted by a potted plant. We always gently nudge them outside without harming them.
Thank you for doing your part to help save the bees!
LOve those tee-shirts. One of the Medics I work with has a Bee Farm on his property and brings his own honey and it tastes amazing. He is always talking about his bees and sharing facts about them. They really are very fascinating.
How awesome is that! I love that the medic you work with is helping to save the bees and sharing the honey that he makes. Thank you for stopping by and helping to save the bees!
This is such a commendable post. As a bee ambassador, you are really doing your mite to help preserve the environment and the ecosystem. Bees are unsung warriors who render yeoman service in nature.
Thank you! I am so glad you enjoyed this post. Please help me spread the word to save the bees.
Great to see a list of foods that help! We’ve planted most in our backyard garden and are growing wonderfully! Glad to see they help!
It would be great if you could plant some wildflowers for the bees alongside your fruits and vegetables!
I didn’t know bees also drink water. I thought they only feed and pollinate on flowers. There’s so much wonderful things to know about bees.
Yes, bees also drink water!We have seen the bees stopping to drink water from our dish and sit on the pebbles and rest.
We don’t pick our dandelions! And we have plans to plant more bee-friendly flowers!
Yay! I am so happy to hear this. Thank you for helping me save the bees.